News - Acer's Wong says Windows 8 and touch will revitalise PC industry

[HEXUS]

Also Acer wants to “make consumers love the brand and its products”.

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[cjs150]

Touch is vital to tablets and smartphones. I can see it being used in laptops, but it is a dead end for desktops, business pcs and HTPCs. Here is a simple test. Fire up word on a desktop and try typing and amending a document using touch screen. Assuming you can reach your monitor from the keyboard you will quickly yearn for the speed and accuracy of a mouse

[Animus404]

@cjs150 I was thinking something similar yesterday, I've been playing with Windows8 on touchscreens and it's great and all but it just doesn't make sense when you move the touchscreen in a desktop environment. I think the best option would have been to create a Touch edition and a Desktop edition of the OS, or have the option to switch between the two. I think if this was the case Windows8 would have been welcomed by most people rather than the perpetual slagging off it seems to be getting.

As for the OEMs, I think they've made a big mistake by shoving dozens of laptop models without a touchscreen into the market.

[wasabi]

As for the OEMs, I think they've made a big mistake by shoving dozens of laptop models without a touchscreen into the market.

I suspect most people who want a keyboard also want a mouse/trackpad. Doing the trendy swish swish swish thing on your spreadsheets will quickly get annoying.

[Animus404]

I suspect most people who want a keyboard also want a mouse/trackpad. Doing the trendy swish swish swish thing on your spreadsheets will quickly get annoying.

I agree, but have you tried to drive the Windows 8 UI with a keyboard and mouse? It suits a touchscreen, I'm suggesting the OEMS need to give people the right hardware to complement the software.

[ed^chigliak]

Just one word.... fingerprints

Until all screens are super sensitive and you can interact with the displays using a stylus I have no desire for anything other than a mouse & keyboard. I can just about tolerate fingerprints on a smartphone but anything bigger and the ugly smudges are highly unappealing.

[PiMan314]

When you've found an easy reliable way to hover your mouse over that one tiny pixel that replaced the start button on the bottom left hand side of the screen to get up the 'metro interface' with dual monitors when you prefer the right monitor being the main monitor, let me know

[pp05]

Screens will improve. We are moving away from existing glossy type found on laptops because they are not suitable for touch. A touch screen needs a special coating so as not to get fingerprints.

For touch to work on desktop I think they would need to be set horizontal on a desk if at a desk or with voice/gesture controls that are accurate that don't need you to touch the screen to do things.

Acer is coming around to this because their entry into the market is getting decent reviews compared to Windows Surface. There is quite a few form factors being experimented.

[Walltricker]

My housemate likes to think that Valve and Steam and Linux will revitalise the PC industry but that will surely take a while.

[crossy]

Touch is vital to tablets and smartphones. I can see it being used in laptops, but it is a dead end for desktops, business pcs and HTPCs. Here is a simple test. Fire up word on a desktop and try typing and amending a document using touch screen. Assuming you can reach your monitor from the keyboard you will quickly yearn for the speed and accuracy of a mouse

Kind of agreed - don't like the idea of touch for desktop PC's ... because of the need to stretch to activate it. On the other hand if someone does a monitor version of the latest Samsung TV's - which have Kinect style gesture features included - then I'll put my name down for one.

One of the kids here got a Windows8 PC for Christmas and it's rammed home that desktop navigation would be far more fluid with a touchscreen (or gesture) input. Her PC isn't "touch enabled" and watching her work shows that she's having to waste time working around the UI. So Windows8 definitely isn't for me - I've not got that kind of patience!

As to Acer, if they wanted this customer to "love them" then they could (a) improve quality and (b) make service information readily available (like is the case for Dell, HP, Sony, etc). I've got two Acer's here and both have developed screen faults in 6 months+, but trying to get any information on how to change screens (or even change disk drives) is far more complex than it should be.

Sorry, unless they change then I'm going to stick with "proper" manufacturers like HP, Dell etc who, to be frank, aren't that much more expensive these days.

[slicky]

It is 2013 now. We aren't as naive as we were in 2012. Try a new punchline Acer!