Users tell Microsoft: We hate Windows 8 touchscreen PCs

With Windows 8, Microsoft recast Windows as a touchscreen interface, and bet the farm that people would flock to it. Now users have spoken: They hate the devices. New research from IDC shows that as few as 10% of all laptops sold this year will sport a touchscreen.

A look at the current laptop best-seller list on Amazon bears out that people aren't buying touchscreen laptops. None of the top ten laptops have touchscreens. The top ten include Chromebooks as well as Macs. But if you look at the top ten best-selling Windows notebooks, none have touchscreens, either.

O'Donnell notes that touchscreen laptops are typically far more expensive than non-touch ones, with prices at $700 to $800, up to double the price of non touchscreen laptops. The problem goes beyond price. He told Computerworld:

"Touch is just not that compelling for most. There are not that many touch-required apps that people feel they must have."​

As a general rule, apps written for Windows 8 are underpowered compared to desktop apps. In addition, there's a dearth of good Windows 8 apps. Recent research shows that Windows 8 has barely half of the most popular iOS apps.

Users tell Microsoft: We hate Windows 8 touchscreen PCs | Computerworld Blogs

 

[Mustang]

Wait just a sec !!
"It has nothing to do with options of mouse/keyboard or people being forced ... but the need to have a touch screen on your computer to be able to use a touch OS. "
Am I supposed to use a touch screen without a touch OS ???How ?.
Actually I used something like that in school, it was called Blackboard and Slate.I guess my teacher was an OS, she made me write all kinds of stuff on it.

You have taken my statement out of context of the post it was in.

My point was acknowleding that you can use mouse/keyboard to operate W8, but you can't use touch without buying a device with a touchscreen, which people simply aren't doing.

I believe the main reason for this is the stress placed on a person's arms being unsupported when stretching out to use touch on vertical screens, which are several feet away from the user on desktop ... whereas the arms, hands and wrists are supported by resting on the desktop when using mouse/keyboard. Plus the added advantage of the speed of touch typing on the keyboard, which cannot be done on a virtual keyboard. Also with drop down text menus individual selections are too small for fingers to locate but mouse pointer can.

Then there's the price factor. And of course the "finger printed" screen problem ... probably loved by NCIS though, lol! And the outstretched hand obscuring a large part of the screen.

With laptops the screen is close, and while touch can be used, my experience is that it's awkward.

With horizontal screens touch is fine because there is no strain on the arms as they hang down vertically. And the functionality of touch is necessary on small screens such as mobile phones and tablets of course with no keyboard.

RT with detachable keyboard would sound a good multi-option, but this has not panned out in the market place.

 

[musiclover7]

My Wife's Boss purchased a gorgeous touch screen Lenovo all in one Windows 8 PC for in the office recently. They could not figure out how to get the bluetooth mouse and keyboard to work initially, and so I got called into help. When I first looked at this machine, which has a gorgeous 27 inch touch screen display, I thought, "My, what a nice computer!" I got the mouse and keyboard connected for them, and walked them through what I thought would be the basics. For my part, I actually found myself enjoying having touch for an option, but then I started realizing, that it just was not working all that good. For instance. Being someone who has used Windows 8 with a mouse and keyboard for close to a year now, I could not figure out how to get the start button to display with just my finger, or the charms bar for that matter. I could not figure out how to close an app by dragging down. I swear, I would move my mouse to the corner with all kinds of drag and gesture, etc., but no matter what I did, I could not get it to work. Eventually, I was like, "Holy Shxx, what a terrible design..." and I resigned to using the mouse and keyboard the way I always had. My wife's boss asked me to bring the start menu back, so I installed classic shell for her, and when I left, she had a smile on her face.

This really got me to thinking. I don't use classic shell. I use Windows 8.1 with no 3rd party tweaks on a daily basis, on our 2 home, play computers. My work computers all run windows 7. I still have the same opinion. Whether you like the new interface or you don't, or whether you are sort of neutral like myself about it... None of these change the fact that the OS should have been designed with the end user having a lot more power of choice. When I realized that the "Touch" features, don't even work that good on a touch machine, this really further drove home the point for me. Had Microsoft released the OS to users, and given them a choice of touch based interface, vs mouse/keyboard of old, then this whole thing could have gone down differently. People would have embraced the OS I believe. People would have given props to Microsoft. Instead, people in general just don't like it. It has been about a year, and I still have yet to talk with anyone in person, who actually likes it, outside of these forums.

One of these days, Microsoft will realize the following equation:

Choice = Win = Happy customers

No Choice = Lose = Feeling trapped = pissed off customers

I have been called at least 8 times this year by a friend or family member, who cannot even figure out how to turn off their machine. To me, this says something...

 

[CountMike]

This whole situation reminds me a little about the time of first mouse and GUI. First mouse was a pretty clunky affair. One button, bad responsiveness and resolution. People had really bad time trying to correlate hand movement with the pointer, specially with small and precise stuff. The best way to teach somebody was to let them do some free hand drawing, the only thing that helped is that screen resolution was coarse by today's standards. Many ( and some I know, even now) found it easier and more precise to enter coordinates in Autocad with keyboard. Some were more comfortable to use DOS and console input and even now a lot of people are working in console mode to do stuff, rather than to chase icons and menus. Luckily, mice, graphic slates and touch pads are reasonably good and easy to use now, with many functions.
I can almost bet that if at the time those older and cruder input devices and GUI were introduced internet existed in this form, there would be just as big outcry as now with TS. Touch screen and OS and GUI for it are at pretty crude stage now, so I guess we need some time to eventually accept and perfect them. There are some new technologies that are at their infancy now but have a promise of some use for them. There's eye movement tracking, Kinect like devices and projected virtual screens, even mind controlled interfaces that just might revolutionize the way we control computers. Only time will tell.

 

[Mustang]

One of these days, Microsoft will realize the following equation:

Choice = Win = Happy customers

No Choice = Lose = Feeling trapped = pissed off customers

I have been called at least 8 times this year by a friend or family member, who cannot even figure out how to turn off their machine. To me, this says something...

That really is the bottom line. Microsoft bet the farm on one OS for all platforms and it just doesn't work that way. The final arbiter in success or failure is the market place.

My son is a qualified computer techo and he echoes the sentiments of at least 8 or 9 techos in PC shops around town that I know personally, and that is the buying public at large are totally disgruntled with W8. The only persons I've met who like it are those who haven't progressed past smartfone technology and to them it comes across as an extended iPhone. The usual comment is: "It looks bright and colourful"! Then they start using it and ...

No doubt touch has a part to play in appropriate devices, but people hail it as being the next evolution of computer control.

Kind of reminds me of when they first introduced 3D movies too many years ago. It was promoted to the max and the pundits shouted it's praises as the great step forward in modern day entertainment. The reality is, it was, and still is ... a total fizzer. Sure it's made a bit of a comeback with gaming, but most people I know who own a 3D TV stop using it as such after the novelty wears off in a few months. For every new invention that makes it, there are 99 that don't. However, they keep the patent office in business.

It's easy to get an over heated imagination watching Sci-Fi movies like Tom Cruise's Minority Report with the Precogs. Touch never looked better as he moves around the multiple giant monitors with majestic sweeping arm and hand movements as if he's about to go into orbit. But at the end of the day he still sleeps in a bed. Truth is there is no magic wand.

Although I did read a post somewhere in this forum that said a public company was trying to float shares for the development of a new micro-chip that the dentist implants in your tooth and it downloads stuff from the Ethernet straight into your brain.

But too much alcohol makes the reception wobbly!

 

[musiclover7]

I would bet the farm that had Microsoft given folks the old interface, with the option of the new, folks would have been much more excited about this OS. They might even been more excited about how much better it might be with touch. Just bad decisions all around.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Break Dancing?

Maybe that's why there was all of that wacky dancing in the Surface ad.
They were all using Kinect to control their tablets.

Manager:

"What are you doing? I don't pay you to Break Dance!"
​

Worker:

"I'm not Break Dancing! I'm typing a Word doc."
​

I would bet the farm that had Microsoft given folks the old interface, with the option of the new, folks would have been much more excited about this OS. They might even been more excited about how much better it might be with touch. Just bad decisions all around.

Agreed.

 

[Mustang]

Maybe that's why there was all of that wacky dancing in the Surface ad.
They were all using Kinect to control their tablets.

Manager:

"What are you doing? I don't pay you to Break Dance!"
​

Worker:

"I'm not Break Dancing! I'm typing a Word doc."​

You're in good form! Still laffing as I type!


​

I would bet the farm that had Microsoft given folks the old interface, with the option of the new, folks would have been much more excited about this OS. They might even been more excited about how much better it might be with touch. Just bad decisions all around.

Agreed.

 

[Vertex]

I demoed a Windows 8 laptop with a 15" wide touchscreen monitor the other day and it was horrible on the desktop because the buttons on Windows Explorer were too small for me to pin with great ease and I hate the fact that they added ribbon UI on Windows Explorer too.

Even when I tried to close a Metro app on that 15" monitor, it was somehow a bad experience having to drag the app to the side to close it and I didn't get it to close. It could have been easier on a smaller screen but on 15" and above, its definitely a no. I think it would have been more practical if they designed apps to have a close button right from the start (which could be hidden) at the top right corner of each app that you could tap twice to close the app at will. That would have been something to help ease the headache that should have been added on Windows 8.1 but no.

For that matter, it would be wiser to buy a non-touchscreen laptop with decent specs (plus Classic Shell) than a slightly more expensive one with a touchscreen monitor that provides no useful advantage in usability anyway that actually offers rather a disadvantage in itself because of the higher price.

If MS made good key decisions on the development of Windows 8, it would have been their greatest OS. But now, if you combine all the bad decisions that are done with Windows 8, it weighs far more than those done with Vista. At least Vista wasn't as confusing to shut down as Windows 8. Its gotta be the most criticized thing MS has ever released on the last 15 years.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Even when I tried to close a Metro app on that 15" monitor, it was somehow a bad experience having to drag the app to the side to close it and I didn't get it to close. It could have been easier on a smaller screen but on 15" and above, its definitely a no. I think it would have been more practical if they designed apps to have a close button right from the start (which could be hidden) at the top right corner of each app that you could tap twice to close the app at will. That would have been something to help ease the headache that should have been added on Windows 8.1 but no.

A "Close" button should have been a "no brainer", given how much empty space there is in the Metro Apps.

For that matter, it would be wiser to buy a non-touchscreen laptop with decent specs (plus Classic Shell) than a slightly more expensive one with a touchscreen monitor that provides no useful advantage in usability anyway that actually offers rather a disadvantage in itself because of the higher price.

The money you "save" by not having a touchscreen, could be spent on getting a PC with better specs (e.g. better CPU, more RAM, a bigger HDD or SSD, a bigger monitor, etc).

If MS made good key decisions on the development of Windows 8, it would have been their greatest OS. But now, if you combine all the bad decisions that are done with Windows 8, it weighs far more than those done with Vista. At least Vista wasn't as confusing to shut down as Windows 8. Its gotta be the most criticized thing MS has ever released on the last 15 years.

It's like they deliberately tried to alienate their existing customer base.

 

[SIW2]

It's like they deliberately tried to alienate their existing customer base.

I don't think they wanted to. They probably thought users would just put up with it /get used to it. Bit of a miscalculation.