Intel Conducts Study to See If You Want Touchscreen Laptops

[phexac]

So they haven't figured out yet that keyboard+mouse is a lot faster and more precise?

I for one can't wait to give up a convenient interface just so I can cover my screen in finger smudges!

 

[Uberragen21]

There would be some serious advantages to having a touchscreen, as well as drawbacks.
Advantages:
1. Taking hand-written notes on the laptop. (many college courses require equations to be written, which makes it nearly impossible to take notes and include these equations in the same document)
2. If the screen folds backwards like the tablet notebooks, you can simulate the popularity of a tablet, but with the versatility and power of a laptop.

Disadvantages:
1. Smudges, smudges, smudges... Did I mention smudges? They annoy the hell out of me on my laptop and I don't touch it on purpose.
2. Adds expense to an already expensive computing device. Notebooks are typically 2x more expensive than desktops, ultrabooks 3-4x.
3. Not all programs will be compatible with touchscreen capabilities. There would undoubtedly be bugs that would never be fixed in some programs.

 

[rumandcoke]

Dear intel... nice non-scientific marketing-driven publicity stunt.

Sincerely,
a guy who will soon be in the market for a laptop, not a trend-toy

 

[jkflipflop98]

Ah yes, anything new and different is immediately met with hate and vitriol. This must be Tom's

 

[dreadlokz]

eh... lets see, its nice to have a touchscreen, but its also nice to have a fisical keyboard, also nice to have kinnect, also nice to have controllers, also nice to have a mouse, also nice to have a cam, would also nice to have mind controlled PCs =)

 

[jryan388]

trackpad < touchscreen < mouse
imo

 

[Guest]

They should focus on making proper drivers for old hardware ( 830M ) for new OS Win7-8.

 

[Guest]

Power users may think they don't need touch, it's just a gimick for the unsavy consumer, if anyone is a "real" user, they won't even use a mouse - so why go touch. Well in the end, the "non-power user" is the majority and this is what companies will target in order to dominate the market.

It is the successes in selling to the masses that drives trends, not the hardy few power users. Innovation will follow inline with the majority and for the hardy few that decide they don't need touch will eventually have to upgrade in order to leverage innovations in software or even build solutions that have relevance in the market of today/tommorrow.

Personally I want to buy an ideal laptop that somehow has the touchscreen of an ipad, the performance of my workstation, the form factor/weight of a 17" ultraslim with a keyboard and the battery that lasts for at least 4 hours of hard use.

Is this possible, maybe not right now, but it is something that hardware gurus should be working towards and anything that gets close to this will secure a purchase from me and I'm sure many others - as long as the price is roughly right.

At the moment I need 4 devices to do what I do and I hate having so many: A high spec'd workstation for the days at the homebase, a high spec'd laptop for the days that I am not, an ultrabook for the time when I have to fly economy, and an ipad when I have nothing too serious to do. I think there is some definite room for consolidation here, but the tech isn't available last month, maybe sometime this year, we can only but hope.

 

[sasa_ri]

We need a new formfactor called "Facetouch". A smartphone with big touchscreen and tiles for facebook,itunes and paint for professionals

 

[audioee]

Give me anything better than a touchpad or mouse nub and I will use it.

 

[ceteras]

I've used a touchscreen laptop a few years ago, with windows xp. I got used to quickly tap the screen whenever I had to dismiss a popup. It was useful, despite it being resistive. It's a lot better than the trackpad or a mouse when you're on a couch.
After that, with my next laptop (no touchscreen), I had a day when I kept tapping the screen just to be reminded there's no touch anymore.
It's just my short experience with it, but I know I want more of it. Even if we don't have the right software stack for it yet, it's a nice to have feature.

 

[velocityg4]

To heck with the laptop. I want a touch screen for my desktop. Not all people use those crappy stands that come with monitors. I use a desktop mounted arm that allows me to lock the screen in any orientation I want and distance. The touch screen would be quite convenient for many tasks. Still I would want it to augment not replace the mouse and keyboard.

It's not like I want it to be more smart phone like either. I have wanted touchscreen since TRON and Star Trek TNG. Minority Report made me really want one.

I want something I can stand up to and use.

 

[nebun]

do people really like to look at their finger prints?....it's bad enough that cell phones get dirty, why would you want a touch screen laptop?.....the track pad and keyboard does just just fine for me.

 

[eddieroolz]

It must be a great way to interact with some things, but I would not want a touchscreen at the expense of price, failure points and bulk. I'd rather take a higher-resolution screen so I can actually manage two Eclipse windows side by side, for example.

 

[apone]

- The unfortunately reality is that manufacturers influence and often insist on what customers want. Case in point, Apple has a long history of including features that they think/want/believe customers want. The late Steve Jobs was quoted in an interview saying "I'm not a fan of focus groups because many consumer don't know what they want until they see it."

- In other words, regardless of what Intel concludes on their study, customers will most definitely want touchscreen notebooks if or when Apple decides to include it in their Macbook notebook lineup.

 

[wardler]

[citation][nom]fsea[/nom]First invent smudge free fingers.[/citation]

I personally will never use a touch screen over a mouse and keyboard unless they invent something awesome like the Microsoft Table they were talking about years ago (or a wall version), but I still won't use that unless it is smudge free technology!

Reaching over your keyboard to use the touch screen? People will be tired of it in minutes when their arms start to ache from holding them up.

And I suppose I am a power user, because touch screens are not nearly responsive enough compared to my wide array of keyboard shortcuts.

 

[Northwestern]

I have a hard enough time trying to keep my laptop's screen clean from fingerprints.

 

[Tab54o]

How about two big clunky atari joysticks one for each hand and two big read buttons. PERFECT.

 

[SAL-e]

How long the subject (a.k.a users) actually used the device? 30min, 1h.....and most of that time they was watching video, not actually manipulating the objects on the screen.
Let them use it for 8h per day for 3 months. .... And I will ask them what they like more after they paid for surgery to fix their RSI [1] in their shoulder, neck or back.

Touch is fine...but it has to be on horizontal or near horizontal surface like a desk. If you have to lift your hand to reach it will cost you dearly this "intuitive" interface.

All CAD systems used light pen as input device before digitisers... I wonder why nobody is using light pan any more?!

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repetitive_strain_injury

 

[Guest]

Certainly not! Groping my arm upwards to touch the screen when sat at a desk is not a natural pose at all - it will make your arm ache and leave annoying fingermarks all over the screen! How about a gesture device as a mouse replacement though?