Do consumers really want touchscreen PCs? (Because I don't

I own an iPad, which I love dearly. I use it for lots of things -- games, email, browsing the web, social networking, writing, viewing photos and video, and remote accessing my PC. The iPad, like all tablets, is a true jack of all trades and a master of some too.
But, try as I might, I can’t use it for "real" tasks. While it’s fine for writing small-ish articles on, I could never write a novel on it -- and I’ve tried. For some reason, I just can’t connect with typing on a touchscreen in the same way I do when typing on a proper full-size keyboard. And I could never imagine attempting detailed Photoshop work on a touchscreen either (well, not without a fine stylus at least).

Maybe it’s just because I’ve been using a keyboard and mouse combo for so long that the old control method has become part of who I am when working. I sit down in front of my PC and the mouse and keyboard are there, in my hands without my ever really having to think about what I’m doing.

Do consumers really want touchscreen PCs? (Because I don't)

Personally I'm looking into getting a touch screen for my desktop PC. I have one of those two-foot deep glass computer desks with the glass slide-out keyboard draws. Since the desk is only two-foot deep and with the draw closed I can get close enough to my screen to use touch. I have no problems with my arms tiring since I've worked construction for many years.

Another factor is that I've always disliked the mouse and use mostly keyboard shortcuts. I'm thinking with touch along with a stylus I can throw my mouse away for good. :)

What are your thoughts on the article and/or any scenario of using touch at your desk?
 
Hi there
A mouse is still the best way of cutting / pasting large blocks of text etc.

Also if you have a LARGE monitor you would normally sit (or should do) too far away to touch it.

Think as well -- on a nice expensive LCD large screen would you really want finger marks all over it.

A laptop might be different but sitting at a desk with one or more large monitors !! Touch won't cut it.

A wireless pointer instead of a mouse that works on the Touch sensitive parts of the screen might be an alternative -- gives the convenience of touch while retaining the control precision a mouse has and wouldn't need a USB transmitter / receiver.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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I own an iPad, which I love dearly. I use it for lots of things -- games, email, browsing the web, social networking, writing, viewing photos and video, and remote accessing my PC. The iPad, like all tablets, is a true jack of all trades and a master of some too.
But, try as I might, I can’t use it for "real" tasks. While it’s fine for writing small-ish articles on, I could never write a novel on it -- and I’ve tried. For some reason, I just can’t connect with typing on a touchscreen in the same way I do when typing on a proper full-size keyboard. And I could never imagine attempting detailed Photoshop work on a touchscreen either (well, not without a fine stylus at least).

Maybe it’s just because I’ve been using a keyboard and mouse combo for so long that the old control method has become part of who I am when working. I sit down in front of my PC and the mouse and keyboard are there, in my hands without my ever really having to think about what I’m doing.

Do consumers really want touchscreen PCs? (Because I don't)

Personally I'm looking into getting a touch screen for my desktop PC. I have one of those two-foot deep glass computer desks with the glass slide-out keyboard draws. Since the desk is only two-foot deep and with the draw closed I can get close enough to my screen to use touch. I have no problems with my arms tiring since I've worked construction for many years.

Another factor is that I've always disliked the mouse and use mostly keyboard shortcuts. I'm thinking with touch along with a stylus I can throw my mouse away for good. :)

What are your thoughts on the article and/or any scenario of using touch at your desk?


gorilla arm

Vertical-Multitouch-660x361.png

Touch screens on PC's should be looked at as another input option such as a pen pad. It shouldn't be looked at as an input method everyone needs to migrate to.
 
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For play it's fine if you can get past the fingerprints and such. For simple internet browsing it's fine, Facebook/email/shopping - which is the extent of what most of the consumer base that seems is the target audience does. Even for a HTPC it would be fine. To impress your family and friends it's even "cool" I guess. But it seems much too novelty.

For editing databases, any kind of extensive Photoshop/graphics work, programming and probably 100's of other things, it just doesn't make sense to me. I do very extensive Photoshop and graphics work, and I'll take a KB and desktop Wacom with a separate screen anyday...I doubt they'll ever come close to getting the level of sensitivity a Wacom tab has.
 

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I used an Acer All in One touchscreen at my office for a couple of weeks. For some things touch is ok, but for everyday use I won't be switching.

Smears on the monitor are terrible
I hate the shiny reflective nature.
Cutting and Pasting is cumbursome.
I hate shifting my hands between the horizontal surface of the keyboard and the vertical surface of the monitor.
Arm gets tired after a few hours or reaching for everything.
 

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I don't want one, either.

I own an iPad [...] But, try as I might, I can’t use it for "real" tasks. While it’s fine for writing small-ish articles on, I could never write a novel on it -- and I’ve tried. For some reason, I just can’t connect with typing on a touchscreen in the same way I do when typing on a proper full-size keyboard. And I could never imagine attempting detailed Photoshop work on a touchscreen either (well, not without a fine stylus at least.

I agree entirely. An Ipad, or other tablet device, is simply no replacement for a PC for serious typing or sppreadsheet applications, or for creating presentations, or diagrams, or sorting through lots of pictures, or picture processing.... for these things you need a decent screen size (at least 22"), a decent keyboard (say, a Cherry Stream XT), and a decent pointing device (say, a Kensington Expert Mouse (which is not a mouse, but a trackball)). A touch screen is the last thing I need, or want.

It follows, therefore, that equally, I don't want or need an operating system or office software suite which is optimised for a touch screen tablet device at the expense of desktop PC operability. But that's a different thread.
 

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I would not mind having a touch-screen, if just to use "Sarek's" LCARSx32 Trek interface which makes any PC looks like a Trek computer. It was designed for Touch Screen, long before Windows 8 was even thought of. When it is working right (it depends on a bunch of dot net stuff) it is great. I had a touch screen system at my house for a week while I was fixing it, this was right before I installed Windows 8 in my PCs. I wish I had had Windows 8 while I had that machine at my house, it would have worked great - It was an Acer system which was kind of like an iMac, just one huge Display and the computer was in the display shell. I told the customer he could bring it back to me later and I'd stick Windows * in it for him. You really don't even need the keyboard with that machine, I had it for days and used mostly yhe touch screen. The only problem with the system is that it had some kind of Atom processor in it, 4 core, and it was pretty slow, albeit stable. I think Windows 8 would be great for that system, as it runs much faster than 7 on machines like that.
 

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When I tried it I didn't see any advantage for the touch screen. Playing with it became quickely boring because it worked basicaly like any other computer. Move the cursor, click, double-click, mouve cursor again,... what's the advantage doing it with your finger? None. The feeling is the same as with the mouse. So why touch-screen? I don't know.
It takes an eternity to right-click and to wait patiently for the right-click menu to appear. This makes copy-paste and drag and drop jobs a huge loss of time.
The screen is far from the keyboard. The mouse is much closer. moving your hand back and forth between the mouse and the screen oliges you to make large gestures constantly and to lose time doing so.
 

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For play it's fine if you can get past the fingerprints and such. For simple internet browsing it's fine, Facebook/email/shopping - which is the extent of what most of the consumer base that seems is the target audience does.
Yep - I think the stores are selling big volumes of tablets to people who want to do just that.

They don't need a PC for:
editing databases, any kind of extensive Photoshop/graphics work, programming and probably 100's of other things
However for those of us who do use a PC for these types of things, for long periods, a touchscreen would be too inefficient and painful.
 

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editing databases, any kind of extensive Photoshop/graphics work, programming and probably 100's of other things
However for those of us who do use a PC for these types of things, for long periods, a touchscreen would be too inefficient and painful.

That's true. I don't believe touch was ever intended to replace a keyboard or other pointing devices.
It's just another input tool and is attractive. My local hospital uses many touch devices because some of them hang on walls or are attached to wheeled tripods or are used as medical monitors and have no keyboard or mouse.
 

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I'm sure that Microsoft, through their user experience program, found that people were using the mouse and keyboard less and less, which is why they have focussed on touch.
 

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I'm sure that Microsoft, through their user experience program, found that people were using the mouse and keyboard less and less, which is why they have focused on touch.

I think the experience program showed that people were using the start menu less not the mouse and keyboard. Touch has been around for some time but is getting some traction now with all the new devices (Ipads, smartphones, whatever)

BTW, I just saw Leap Motion being used in CSI: Miami. Starting with season 6 episode 1.
They just wave their hands around and windows and pics fly. Looking like a million dollar setup though.
 

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I'm sure that Microsoft, through their user experience program, found that people were using the mouse and keyboard less and less, which is why they have focused on touch.

Evolving the Start menu - Building Windows 8 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

So Microsoft went from a cascading start menu in Windows 95, added a flexible taskbar in Windows 7, to a full screen 'task bar' in Windows 8. We went from the ability to pin programs, depending on frequency of use, from a pop-up start menu, plus cascading start menu, plus taskbar and desktop, to just one full-screen menu. Wow, now that is progress.

OK, so they based the MPI on some limited statistics, now what will they do now that they have some real user feedback?
 

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They had plenty of feedback before they released it.

They went ahead without fixing those concerns.

Predictable result.
 

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So Microsoft went from a cascading start menu in Windows 95, added a flexible taskbar in Windows 7, to a full screen 'task bar' in Windows 8. We went from the ability to pin programs, depending on frequency of use, from a pop-up start menu, plus cascading start menu, plus taskbar and desktop, to just one full-screen menu. Wow, now that is progress.

OK, so they based the MPI on some limited statistics, now what will they do now that they have some real user feedback?

I wouldn't call it progress necessarily because progress really cannot be quantified (opinions and preference only). I would call it change. So far, it is not very popular, but that may change in 2 or 3 years from now. What will Windows 10 or 11 look like? I expect at some point, they may recode the OS and move away from the NT kernel. What will that look like? What will Linux 17 look like? Or Apple OS 21?

As far as user feedback is concerned, I think they will add and remove features as they always have. I don't really care what they do. I will use whatever is available to get work done.
 

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If it's not popular now, how is it going to become popular in 2-3 years? It would have been so simple to have left the interface elements of Windows 7 in Windows 8, brought in the underlying improvements and left the MPI as a secondary option for the desktop. Windows 8 would have stormed the ramparts and been declared a resounding success. I can't believe how Microsoft completely misread its userbase and was blindsided by tablets and mobile phones.
 

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If it's not popular now, how is it going to become popular in 2-3 years? It would have been so simple to have left the interface elements of Windows 7 in Windows 8, brought in the underlying improvements and left the MPI as a secondary option for the desktop. Windows 8 would have stormed the ramparts and been declared a resounding success. I can't believe how Microsoft completely misread its userbase and was blindsided by tablets and mobile phones.

There is literally a tsunami of new technologies that will override Win32. The desktop has been demoted to a lesser status although it is not really that way and is, for now, absolutely necessary. Absolutely.

I think they (at Microsoft and MSDN) have a different view of evolving code technologies.
The view that the MPI is inadequate on the desktop is misleading since the MPI is not on the desktop. The MPI shares the kernel with Win32 and is given at least equal status with Win32 whether or not one's point of view is that it does not belong on a desktop PC.

If one does not like to flip pages, one will never like Windows 8 unless Microsoft codes a metro blocker.
I doubt that will happen.
 

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I used an Acer All in One touchscreen at my office for a couple of weeks. For some things touch is ok, but for everyday use I won't be switching.

Smears on the monitor are terrible
I hate the shiny reflective nature.
Cutting and Pasting is cumbursome.
I hate shifting my hands between the horizontal surface of the keyboard and the vertical surface of the monitor.
Arm gets tired after a few hours or reaching for everything.

That sums it up for me. Thanks for sharing real life experience.
 

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