I have been thinking about this quite a bit lately. Windows 8 launched and itâs got its own share of critics and fans. But whatâs interested me more was the debate on touch that it has re-ignited, especially on laptops.
I was a skeptic early on. I actually believed that people donât want to reach out to touch their laptop screens but that it was okay to touch your tablet 1. Until I actually started playing with a few touch laptops over the past few months. Once youâre used to it, you come to expect it in all laptops.
And this is where I believe the problem is. First of all, the skepticism from most (and, in some cases, ridicule) seems to be from those who havenât actually tried them out for an extended length of time. Also, touch is not meant to be the sole mode of user interaction. Let us leave aside prejudices on Windows 8 itself, because that is a discussion for a different day.
I think touch is inevitable. And Apple will bring it across its products eventually. Maybe theyâll change OS X (fuse it with iOS in some form) and will bring it across the board.
Yesterday, Lenovo announced a giant 27â touchscreen desktop/All-in-One in CES. I noticed a lot of sneering. People said it wonât work and that one would have to stretch out their arm to touch the screen or some such. Now, letâs assume Lenovo actually ship this. Actually, scratch that. If we want to be cynical about this, letâs assume it is another instance of CES vaporware and instead consider those already in market. Lenovo already has a touchscreen AIO and so does Dell. The Dell AIO actually reclines to flatten out (parallel to the plane on which it rests). With touch-optimized apps for that real-estate I can imagine a lot of applications for artists, AutoDesk and, yes, gaming. Its viability becomes obvious. A larger screen real estate also means more scope for adding touch-optimized UI controls without much clutter.
This brings me to Apple. Whether you like them or not, they are dictating a lot of trends today. Itâs not enough that other companies have pushed the envelope with innovation, but when Apple brings it to their products with their integrated polish, existing paradigms gain some sort of âlegitimacyâ. This isnât a knock on users of Apple products, but as the biggest (and fastest-growing) consumer technology company this is only natural. Iâve always been fascinated by how they would go about bringing touch across all their devices.
They have a few ways of doing this.
Going the iOS-on-ARM route. Path of least resistanceâblow-up the iPadâuse the rapidly growing ecosystem.
Making OS X a touch OS. There is enough history here. But this might require some re-engineering work to make OS X (or OS XI) touch-friendly all-through.
The first option seems the easiest way to go about it. But ARM is still not upto it performance-wise. And I wonder if they can iterate fast enough to the highest-powered Intel chips we have today.
The second option means changing OS X entirelyâbut that might probably give us some form of iOS, in which case why bother?
I think there is a third way. It is to port iOS to x86 (Intel). There have always been rumours swirling that Apple may have Intel chips on the iPad (as far-fetched as it might seem right now) due to foundry deals it may strike with them. 2.
It is quite possible for developers to be provided tooling to target x86 vs ARM platforms like what is happening today on the Windows Store. They would, of course, have a separate app store (or repurpose the Mac App Store) for this newer, bigger-form-factor device. Perhaps they will even have legit keyboard support unlike the current hacky-way people use with their iPadsâmainly because this device will have more emphasis on creation than consumption 3.
But today, touch, in its current form, exists to complement keyboard + mouse. I helps to zoom-in to pictures, interact with apps built for touch, while a keyboard is still handy to hold our hands till something comes along that proves to be better. I hear kids growing up with iPads/tablets have gotten quite adept at typing on touchscreens. But maybe, at the rate at which things are going, we might be dictating to the screen what we want to type. Weâre already seeing that to a less-accurate extent. But we will get there. Itâs inevitable.
Cue Steve Jobsâ quote during one of his product announcements on how touch laptops are a bad idea. â©
This was the most recent rumour of an Apple-Intel partnership. Not that crazy considering their strained relationship with Samsung and their constant lookout for foundries capable of meeting their demands. â©
Oh, yes, I know the iPad in its current form can be used for creation and consumption, but a larger device makes it easier to use it for creation purposes. It really is that simple. â©
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