November 4th, 2008

Show of hands: Who wants multi-touch on a PC (and why)?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:38 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, PDC 2008, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows client

Tags: Desktop, PC, Multi-touch, Mary Jo Foley

Multi-touch is one of those fun, gee-whiz technologies that demos well. It was definitely one of the stars of Windows 7’s Professional Developer Conference (PDC) keynote debut last week.

But, as I asked earlier this year, who really wants to have to touch their laptop or desktop screens to perform tasks that are easier and better done with a mouse and keyboard?

I don’t buy the argument some make that because multi-touch is well-suited for phones, it automatically makes sense on PCs, too. Maybe multi-touch makes more sense if you are using a small-screen netbook or ultra-mobile PC (if that class of machines still exists out there), but on a regular, full-size laptop/desktop? I just don’t see it.

I’ve heard some claim that Microsoft simply wanted to beat Apple to the punch with something new on the user-interface front, and multi-touch seemed like the natural choice. (I’m not an Apple fan, but I have to say that multi-touch on a trackpad makes a million times more sense to me than multi-touch on a screen.)

I’m sure there are Tablet PC users out there who are gung-ho about multi-touch coming to Windows (even if they’re not gung-ho about their Chief Software Architect’s take on Tablets, which, I have to admit, mirrors my own). And there’s no doubt that more than a few PC makers looking for ways to convince users to buy new PCs who are rubbing their hands together with glee over the possibility of multi-touch systems for back-to-school and holiday 2009.

But can anyone else out there make a case as to why I might want a multi-touch laptop? What kinds of applications — beyond specialty ones like certain medical-imaging apps and CAD/CAM ones — will make good use of multi-touch?

[Poll=29]