Mobile
Touch Screen Announcements Targeting Windows 7
With details about Windows 7 about to be unveiled at PDC2008, it looks like some OEMs are beginning to let slip some info about their devices that are going to incorporate the touch capabilities included in the new OS. DigiTimes is reporting that Asus is readying touch screen Eee PCs for the first or second quarter in 2009. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that HP is readying a touch screen laptop that may debut before the end of this year. Both tidbits of information place possible release dates ahead of the “known” schedule for Windows 7, but I’m guessing these would be moves to be out front of the rest. That said, don’t look for others to be sitting on the sideline. I anticipate seeing a number of touch screen devices at CES2009 this January.
Keep in mind that HP already has a line of touch screen Tablet PCs (the tx2500 series) as well as its TouchSmart series for the desktop, so this is no departure for them there.
Medic
10/16/2008 at 6:56 am
Great to hear that more attention is put to the touch screen.
Two sidenotes:
1. Hopefully the gadgetry status that a touch screen is now enjoying will show a better usefulness in daily life at CES2009.
2.Hopefully just as much talk and attention would be put in a tablet friendly OS (bigger buttons, intuitive OS layout for touch) and good improved (multilangual) handwriting and its recognition to text (especially the well known irreadable (doctor’s handwriting): quick, cursive, sloppy). That would really solve a current issue, where technology could help a lot.
Sumocat
10/16/2008 at 7:08 am
WTF? Have journalists and analysts just given up on doing their research? I blogged yesterday about a Gartner VP who was quoted, “[touchscreens are] typically on the desktop form factor not on a notebook.” How do these guys get paid so much for knowing so little?
Seriously, forget for a moment that tablets are a subset of notebooks. Last year, the tx1000 was marketed as an entertainment notebook, not a Tablet PC, and had the option for a touchscreen, and now touch is standard on the tx2500 update. So how does it make sense that, according to WSJ, HP is “now developing a consumer notebook machine with a touch screen”? They’re developing *now* what they already released more than a year ago? Yeah, and I’m *now* developing an ink blog.