There’s a quick little piece on multitouch technology on Wired right now, and it questions the conventional wisdom that says multitouch technology will do to laptops what it’s done to cellphones. (That is, multitouch, as seen on the iPhone, is the hot, new input mechanism that everyone wants to date.) “Questions”? Yes, not everyone is so sure that multitouch will make any sort of meaningful impact on the way we use conventional laptops.
Just ask Fujitsu. Though the company is scheduled to release 12-inch laptops with multitouch next year, it’s not exactly betting that we’ll be multitouching all over the place. One reason is that a laptop’s keyboard is good enough—why try to cram in a new technology when the existing one works well as it is? Why not try to incorporate multitouch into netbooks and other too-small-for-their-own-good devices?
There’s also the small problem of proper operating system support.Microsoft doesn’t intend to support multitouch until Windows 7—we all know how these operating system promises can turn out.
So if you’re not exactly a fan of multitouch technology, not to worry. There’s still plenty of time to cling to your keyboards while manufacturers figure out exactly what they want to do.