Thread: A New Reason to Hate Windows

Do you think that a touchscreens will be a standard future for laptops in the near future?

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Do you think that touchscreens will be a standard feature for laptops in the near future?

O_o

I don't.

I see the industry trying desperately to merge them for a couple more years before returning to some specialization to the benefit of all involved--including consumers. The thing is, good tablets are cheap, and great tablets are affordable. The same goes, generally, for telephones, desktops, and laptops. I think that's a nail in the coffin of laptops with tablet features. I do see the "transformers" type device having a strong niche market but never so strong as touchscreens becoming a standard laptop feature.

(You don't really need a laptop with tablet features now that tablets are pretty great with good value.)

I know the arguments against carrying multiple bits of kit. I just don't see the industry making a great laptop that is cheap enough to be a value compared to buying both a great tablet and a good laptop (or the opposite). Of course, that says nothing of the wide availability of "Bluetooth" keyboards that work very well with a lot of tablets which some industries seem to be moving towards.

Soma

Still, if you have a good desktop and a good tablet but incompatible OS then you cannot achieve what you can achieve with a "transformer" type.

O_o

How did you write that in the same post where you do a fair job referencing the problems with the assumption of compatibility?

My point here is that a "transformer" isn't guaranteed to be compatible and a tablet isn't guaranteed to be incompatible.

As a developer I would love if you just got the great laptop and I had to make my app once, but if you are going to buy an Android tablet with a Windows laptop, I rather you buy them both with Windows 8.

I'd rather everyone use a free operating system stack running only software that confirms as strongly as is possible to all the relevant standards related to the software in question.

I will likely continue to want that until I die because it just isn't going to happen.

Even if Microsoft subsidizes the crap out of their upcoming surface stuff, I'm still probably going to be able to get more value with an "Android" device.

Soma