Microsoft emphasizes on touch-screen devices
Las Vegas: Microsoft displayed a number of a number of new touch-screen devices and applications powered by Windows 7's built-in Windows Touch technology at Consumer Electronic Show (CES), to emphasize the importance of touch screens in today's world. Microsoft strongly believes that touch screens will soon find their way in home and offices. Scientific advances, rising consumer expectations, and lower costs have combined to create "a perfect storm" of opportunity for touch PCs, said Microsoft Principal Researcher Bill Buxton, according to InformationWeek.
Microsoft said that many different kind of touch screens can be used in house to assist in day to day use. To give an example, General Mills showcased an app for touch PCs called the Betty Crocker Kitchen Assistant. The software features interactive recipes and other tools that consumers can navigate through with their fingertips. "We believe that most families will soon have a PC on their kitchen counter," said General Mills Website Manager Mike Bettison. "A touch screen takes up less precious counter-top real estate than a keyboard and mouse, and lets you check a recipe without putting down the egg beater," said Bettison.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer also pushed touch-screen computing, and helped demonstrated some new, touch-enabled devices that are just hitting the market. Ballmer, for instance, showed off the Sony Vaio L, an HD entertainment system that includes a 24-inch touch screen. He also demoed a prototype of an HP slate-style computer that was running Amazon's Kindle app, which effectively turned the unit into an e-reader. Also on display was an application from Graphic.ly, which lets readers' user their fingers to navigate through the company's online library of classic novels and modern-day comics.
Microsoft is hoping that the increase in the use of touch screen technology will help then shoot up the sales of Windows 7. The operating system's Windows Touch technology can arm a screen with up to 100 touch points, and recognizes about six different hand gestures - including flicking, rotating, dragging, and zooming. "We collected thousands of samples from hundreds of people, and then mined that data looking for problems and optimization opportunities," said Ian LeGrow, a Windows Group Program Manager.
According to a Gartner report around 10 percent of all new PCs hitting the market in 2010 will support touch-screen computing.
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