It’s been no long when touch devices were not very popular and this reality was a dream few years back. Although it’s not like that we didn’t had touch devices and programs providing the touch capability but it was something which was not for everyone.
Putting the case simple, did every information worker, dentist, student etc had a PC on their desk in 1980’s? No, because it was something which was at that point was restricted to large organizations and IT guys. Because it was not that much personalized, friendly, affordable. Bill Gates came out with a vision that every desk should have a PC running Microsoft software on it. To make this dream a reality Microsoft came up with a vision, innovation and of course one of the blessings which serves as a backbone for IT innovation i.e. reduction in prices, increase in capability of Hardware devices.
Today, no one will argue on the need of a PC but people did 15 years back, I see the same story going around Touch!
Around seven years back, how many touch devices you owned or used? Or rather you were fascinated by Tablets providing you the touch capability through a stylus or pen or you might have come across while drawing cash from ATM or on your visit to some tech savvy organization. Think as of a common man excluding the large organizations who never came across such devices.
Companies like Microsoft, Apple, HP, Dell, HTC and others have putted in a huge effort in last few years to bring Multi-Touch to every pocket and every home. Although this concept and is still not mature where Multi-Touch technology simulating your natural behavior of interaction with objects has not completely replaced the classic input mechanism of keypad, mouse & digital pen etc. However if you see Apple’s IPhone, wow! First phone to introduce Multi-Touch with literally no other input mechanism and you can check out its popularity graph and adaption. Following the trend Windows Mobile also offered the same functionality and many other vendors also started adapting it. The number of touch enabled smart phone users have been increasing which is an advent of the popularity of Touch devices!
But your major work and force relies on a PC which is now a days on every desk. Here Microsoft is a game changer which has built Multi-Touch as a part of Windows 7 Platform. Having more than 96% desktop market share the newer version of the OS has enabled every individual to start interacting with the machine naturally. Obviously this is not possible without the Multi-Touch hardware but as we see that the decrease in hardware prices and the already present Touch technology with Hardware vendors has enabled them to ship machines with Touch capability because Microsoft has provided them the platform which would make people use their hardware through Multi-Touch.
So your Windows OS has got Multi-Touch capability built-in and you have a lot of options to acquire Multi-Touch hardware. Many new laptops are coming up with this capability, you can also get All in One (AIO) desktops with Multi Touch let’s say you don’t want to opt for a new machine you can just get a Multi-Touch enabled Screen (LCD), that’s it . Nearly all vendors (HP, Dell, Asus, Acer, Lenovo etc.) are coming up with different variants built upon different Multi-Touch technologies being enabled through Windows 7 serving different markets.
Microsoft has invested a lot in this technology you can get an idea by using even simpler programs like Paint, Internet Explorer, Image Viewer etc. If you want to check out more gestures support so install Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 which will installs different games and apps on your machine which are Multi-Touch enabled and will enhance your experience further.
This is not the end Microsoft is empowering Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) on the Multi-Touch technology through various trainings and workshops. Various research projects are in progress to identify top Multi-Touch application scenarios and how to maximum leverage the users through offering them touch enabled solutions.
Just a few years down the road Mouse and keyboards will be just like the Modem cards and Floppy disks which will no longer be offered by vendors as their successors will completely replace them and will change the way people interact with their PCs!
