Intel Conducts Study to See If You Want Touchscreen Laptops

A recent study conducted by Intel is now proving that a majority of people do want touch capability on the laptop.  Lately news of the touchscreen tablets has been overflowing the news and for Intel this is not good.  Since the release of the Ultrabook, Intel has been pushing its partners to make these thin notebooks.

Now, rather than fight the tablet market, Intel appears to be interested in the touchscreen world by conducting research to decide whether touch capability in a laptop is desirable to the average consumer. Throughout its testing, Intel found that over three quarters of users preferred using the touchscreen when going about everyday tasks such as browsing the web.  This seemingly ergonomic nightmare has been called “intuitive” by many of the folks who were included in the testing.

"People told me that touch on the laptop was intuitive, fun, immersive and freed them from the mouse and trackpad, especially when they discovered actions like flicking the screen to scroll up or down and navigate between tasks," said Daria Loi, a user experience manager at Intel.

Loi found that people spent 77 percent of the time using the touchcreen for tasks such as surfing the Web, watching online video, viewing and editing photos and adjusting the laptop's setting.

As well as competing with the tablet, it also seems Intel is bracing itself for the arrival of Windows 8. Windows 8, although compatible with the keyboard and the mouse, has a new focus for the touchscreen.

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With Intel not yet ready to tackle ARM in the tablet space, it is likely looking towards touch on Ultrabooks to help fill in the gap.

In an update from the Intel Free Press, we've learned that researcher Daria Loi was misquoted in the original source of this story. “Ninety percent is not a number I have in the study,” she said after the article was published, adding that “many users found touch intuitive, but not 90 percent.” Intel Free Press regrets the error.