Touch computing gains traction

MANILA, Philippines - Point-and-click, that twin act we all learned to do with a computer mouse may soon become a thing of the past as more touch-enabled computers and devices become available.

Touch computing has been around for sometime, but now it has a chance to mature as more electronics manufacturers acknowledge the technology’s potential to excite a languishing consumer electronics market.

The launch of Microsoft Windows 7 operating system also helps usher touch technology to mainstream. Microsoft is an advocate of touch computing and was an earlier promoter of Tablet PCs that displayed touch abilities. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates champions touch as a natural user interface highly applicable in computing, and on several occasions he had demonstrated how touch technology could work with a tabletop computer in a kitchen to play music, read recipes, play cards, and view photos, among others. That gizmo has been called the Microsoft Surface, a 30-inch interactive tabletop computer that is finding its way in the service, retail and leisure industries.

Now that Windows support touch interface, tech watchers believe it will now become more accessible to consumers. Big IT companies like HP already rolled out several touch-enabled products, the latest of which included the new HP TouchSmart300 All-in-One Desktop PC, HP TouchSmart600 All-in-One Desktop PC and an enhanced HP TouchSmart tx2 Notebook PC. HP also accompanied its new touch-hardware with a supporting software, the HP TouchSmart 3.0 optimized to support the new interface.

Dennis Mark, vice president and general manager, Desktop Systems Unit, Personal Systems Group, HP Asia Pacific and Japan, observes that even non-savvy computer users can quickly learn how to use a touch-based appliance because of their intuitive nature.

“They almost require no teaching or training. We rolled out the first TouchSmart in 2007 and it opened the door for users to have a new way to engage with technology. Now we are in the process of rolling out consumer applications which are critical to increase commercial use,” Mark said.

Dell also has a touch-ready notebook, the Studio 17, and is poised to release Dell Studio 10 Touch laptop with multi-touch screen and running on Windows 7.

Not to be left out, Acer also introduced its own multi-touch Windows 7-based Aspire notebook. The Aspire AS5738PG

Apple, the company that really made fingers busy tapping on iPhone screens, reportedly also has plans to release a multitouch-based tablet computer.

This kind of strong commitment from vendors might finally help touch computing to gain traction. Gartner estimates the market for touch-screen PC units to surpass six million in 2010, four times more than 2008 figures as 10 percent of new shipments are expected to support touch capabilities.