Acer Says Touchscreen Laptops Will Soon Be Everywhere

News
By Kevin Parrish
published

It may be a few years before touch-based notebooks actually dominate the market.

In a recent interview with DigiTimes, Acer president Jim Wong said that laptops with touchscreens should soon be widely available, taking over the market. He also noted that the launch of Windows 8 in October was bad timing for manufacturers, as there was only a short time to promote related products before the holiday season. Thus, it was difficult to determine consumer interest which in turn affected strategy planning for the remainder of the year and on into 2013.

Wong told the site that Acer is currently watching the Windows 8 market to see what happens. While there's already some data to sift, most of it is related to acceptance by early adopters and doesn't represent the whole market. Acer is also evaluating the non-x86 market given that the ARM architecture has seen rapid growth, but the company's forecast will focus on x86-based solutions since the major demand from Windows customers is still related to data management.

The Acer chief went on to state that many of the concerns and criticisms surrounding Windows 8 have been "rather unfair". He said that in the past, market observers have criticized Microsoft of lacking innovation. But now the OS has an entirely new touch-based interface fit for both the desktop and mobile form factors. This innovation is leading to talk that the change will dramatically delay adoption by consumers. But a move such as the new Modern UI is a risk Microsoft has taken, and right now it's just too early to tell if that risk was a failure or a success.

"Acer's internal research points out that a consumer, after controlling a touchscreen product for more than 20 minutes, would want to use his or her fingers to touch any display he or she sees," Wong said via DigiTimes. "This indicates that touchscreen control is an irreversible trend. Acer believes touchscreen control will be a strong selling point, but it still needs more time to take off."

As for the touchscreen dominance in the notebook market, this will likely take two to three years due to the high costs of touchscreen modules. For 13- and 14-inch models, currently touchscreen modules increase the final price by more than $100 USD. However this market is "worth investing in" because there's an audience that wants a touch-based machine that serves both work and entertainment environments.

"The supply of touch panel will also be a major factor affecting the penetration of touchscreen notebooks in the PC market. PC brand vendors already started securing touch panel supply six months before Windows 8's launch to ensure of sufficient supply," Wong said. "Most PC brand vendors are expected to join the touchscreen notebook market in 2013, and vendors that have stronger control over touch panel supply will have a bigger chance of success in the market."

To read the full interview, head here.

Kevin Parrish
12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bigdragon
    Concerns and criticisms about Windows 8 are not unfair. Innovations that improve a platform are celebrated and praised. What Microsoft did was foist half-baked innovations onto the market that took the s off their Windows product. If they would have responded to concerns and addressed them during the multiple opportunities before release Windows 8 would have been better off. Instead, Microsoft doubled-down on the problematic features. Today's concerns about Windows 8 have been known for well over a year now. What's really unfair is how Microsoft ignored their customers. The worse-than-Vista uptake demonstrates this clearly.
    Reply
  • pacioli
    Here are the problems with touchscreen PCs...
    1. They get filthy. Touchscreen phones and tablets get filthy, why wouldn't a touchscreen PC get filthy.
    2. They are too big. A phone or tablet is small enough where a simple hand motion can cover the screen. A touchscreen PC requires a hand and arm motion to use.
    3. A mouse is superior. It uses short quick hand motions to control large surfaces.
    4. Hands block content. By putting your hand over the screen you are blocking content on the screen.
    *** Please feel free to add to this list in the comments below...
    Reply
  • tmshdw
    I have an iPad and don't mind "touching" it.

    But I HATE SMUDGES ON MY LAPTOP SCREEN.
    Then there is the way extra motion needed to reach for the screen.
    Reply
  • I can't wait to see how consumers feel after a full days work reaching out to their monitors!
    Reply
  • alidan
    pacioliHere are the problems with touchscreen PCs... 1. They get filthy. Touchscreen phones and tablets get filthy, why wouldn't a touchscreen PC get filthy.2. They are too big. A phone or tablet is small enough where a simple hand motion can cover the screen. A touchscreen PC requires a hand and arm motion to use. 3. A mouse is superior. It uses short quick hand motions to control large surfaces.4. Hands block content. By putting your hand over the screen you are blocking content on the screen.*** Please feel free to add to this list in the comments below...
    only touch screen i want is one with a wacom input in it, and i may be getting one of those soon.
    Reply
  • kawininjazx
    I have zero interest in a touchscreen computer. My phone and tablet work great with a touchscreen, but a keyboard and mouse make it useless for a PC.
    Reply
  • vertigo_2000
    Just bought a Acer Aspire V5 with touchscreen. I haven't played around too much with it (was mainly purchased for my wife). When shopping, I was looking for 1 of 2 things... either a laptop with Windows 7 and an SSD or, if I couldn't find one decently priced, then one with Windows 8 and a touchscreen.

    It should be noted that just because it has it, you don't have to use the touchscreen, but for moving around the modern UI on the laptop, I prefer it to using the touchpad on the thing. I've never used Windows 8 before, so there was definitely a learning curve to it. Still haven't quite figured it all out yet.

    I finally understand what people meant when they said MS was transitioning to a walled garden approach. The modern UI side of the OS just seemed limited. For instance when my wife was trying to print some information off a web page, she couldn't choose a range of pages (ie. pages 3-6). It was all the pages or none of them. We had to switch over to the desktop version of IE in order to have that functionality. Seems redundant to have 2 separate versions of IE running in one OS.
    Reply
  • ivyanev
    While i also don't like the idea of finger painting ot screen , we have to give credit to microsoft for pushing for some inovation instead of trailing behind apple.And the best fit for win8 is "convertible" laptop in all the diifferent forms available.
    It is interesting who will win - apple with high res vs win with touch(you can have both but the price....) and add to that and a 3d display.
    Reply
  • immanuel_aj
    Did anyone watch Minority Report? I think that could be one of the possible ways computers evolve in the future. I reckon it's pretty clear that people want to use their device through touch input from the way tablets and smartphones have taken off.
    Sure, at the moment it's rather clunky on a desktop, but it's really only a first effort. Things will just continue to evolve from here and eventually, someday, I think not only would it be common for computers to have touchscreens, but it would have evolved to the point where it's EASIER to work when using the touchscreen.
    Reply
  • welson
    The last thing you should look for is an anti-theft device. Not all come with those device standard, but you can add one yourself.The devices can lock your computer so that no one can access it.
    Reply