Get ready for mass market Touchscreens

On the eve of the International Consumer Electronics Show, HP has unveiled a new netbook equipped with a Touchscreen. The HP Mini 5102 enables users to navigate through Windows applications and web pages with the touch of their fingers, and ... here's the big news ... it has a starting list price of only $399.

Lenovo is in the mix, too, having introduced the IdeaPad S10-3t convertible netbook, complete with which has a 10.1-inch screen that can swivel 180 degrees and fold over to be used as touch tablet. The Lenovo has a starting price of about $550.

This means that touchscreen technology is going to explode in the coming year. IT managers will be hard-pressed to justify saying no to an executive who wants to spend what is essentially a rounding error for a machine that is exponentially easier to use than today's portable, mouse-bound, devices.

These developments will also force Dell to bring down their tablet prices or risk losing significant market share over the next three years. This is going to happen very, very quickly.

The next big question is ... will the wireless carriers be permitted to keep up with demand?

Credit where credit is due ...
Read the article at Information Week: HP Unveils Touchscreen Mini PC

Widespread Touchscreen is coming

A few weeks back, ComputerWorld published an analysis of what five top PC makers are planning for the touch-screen market. I found it to be eye-opening. Here are some highlights from the article:

• Lenovo Group plans to release a touch-screen model soon after Windows 7 goes into production release.
• Acer is planning three touch-screen models for Windows 7.
• Micro-Star International (MSI) is planning a Windows 7-enable netbook.
• Sony announced earlier in August that the Vaio will be available in touch-screen enabled models for Windows 7.
• Asuste - which is already in the touch-screen game with several Linux models - is planning a Windows 7 version.

Notice a theme?

Of course, all of these manufacturers - which collectively represent 60% of the global PC market - are linking up with the release of Windows 7 to help push this market forward. My perspective is that this is a welcome development. Touch-screen technology has been pretty good for too many years for it to be so rare in the market. It will, of course, have an impact on consumer-facing application development. And it will open up a plethora of opportunities for creative solutions to pesky user-interface issues. Not the least is how technology can be used in mobile environments, such as delivery trucks, military vehicles, and even airplane cockpits. I also think about kiosk applications at health clubs, banks, hospitals, doctor's offices; the list goes on and on.

I'll be keeping a close eye on this over the next six months. It's going to be impossible to ignore the implications.

Here's the article from ComputerWorld:
The OS that launched 1,000 touch screens