Windows 8 and touchscreens in the same sentence has become quite a debated topic. There is little doubt that Microsoft’s latest operating system is built from the grounds up to make use of the touch capability of devices it powers.
Problem is that even after almost four months on the market, there aren’t all that many touch devices available that run Redmond’s newest platform.
A senior PC analyst over at Context, Marie-Christine Pygott is partially puts the blame on PC manufacturers for not delivering enough touchscreen devices running Windows 8.
She was speaking to MicroScope and said:
“Only 1.1% of all the Windows 8 portable PCs selling through distribution at the time of the launch were touchscreen enabled. By the end of January this had only risen to 2.4% while tablet sales as we know have increased significantly over the same period.”
While these are UK specific statistics, things are not much different in other markets.
PC manufacturers on the other hand had pinned some very high hopes on the new operating system, ever since Microsoft announced the launch date of Windows 8. Most considered it the key factor in the highly anticipated recovery of the hardware industry.
But even though Microsoft claims Windows 8 sales are in line with its predecessors, market statistics paint a different story — particularly when it comes to sales of hardware devices.
The two most important battles Windows 8 faces when it comes to touchscreen solutions are tablets and consumer laptops.
The tablets issue will take care of itself in due time, but hardware vendors will really have to up their game in bringing touch enabled screens to laptops and notebooks at all price ranges. The numbers will begin to add up, once they do.