While it’s not due for release until October anticipation for tablet-friendly Windows 8 is building, not least when it comes to its swipe, slide and zoom five-finger multi touch interface capabilities. Though it seems not everybody is rolling out the red carpet for this latest enhancement (Windows 7 already offers two-fingered touch, for which Windows 8 will offer backwards compatibility). In particular, there is a fear that Microsoft could end up under-delivering experience-wise for traditional mouse-and-keyboard systems.
Which brings us to an interesting post on the DAILYTECH site looking at this very issue. In his All Windows 8 PCs Will Have 5-Fingered Touch blog of March 29, Jason Mick argues that Windows 8 touch is ‘not the Mayan apocalypse’ that many people seem to think.
Among the points he makes are that the reaction to multitouch is not dissimilar to the initial consumer reaction to the mouse in the 1980s, and that multitouch plus keyboard plus mouse may well be the future of PC I/O. He also touches on topics as diverse as why this latest development doesn’t automatically mean that Windows 8 touch screens will be covered in fingerprints to the practical issues regarding the compatibility of Windows 8 with Windows 7.
Jason’s blog is a good starting point for putting Windows 8 multi touch in context. Here at andersDX we are simply very excited about the new world of possibilities that Windows 8 will offer for user experience across a whole host of devices - and can’t wait to start delivering our first Windows 8 systems.
Though, as ever, we’d like to know what you think…