PC users upgrading to Windows 8 will find a touch-focused interface optimized for touchscreens. Although current touchscreens are shipping with Windows 7 support touchscreen technology, they're not quite optimized for it in the same way.
Why are touchscreens good for your office? To start, a younger demographic entering the workplace will appreciate the aesthetic of a touchscreen laptop, and immediately understand how efficient work can be with one.
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There's also the issue of repetitive strain injury (RSI). If you're adding a touchscreen to your mouse-and-keyboard mix, you'll be using a wider range of motion, which can reduce potential strain. However, a poorly implemented touchscreen may add to the problem. Unfortunately, it's too early to tell which side of the fence touchscreen PCs land on, and there haven't yet been any definitive studies.
There's also the question of efficiency. It takes less time to touch an icon than it does to navigate to it and click it using a mouse. While this may seem minor, if you add up all of the programs you open daily, you'll quickly see where the efficiencies are.
The perceived cost of touchscreen laptops has kept them out of most business budgets. Most now hover around $1000, in the range of acceptability, especially if you're considering an upgrade to Windows 8 within the next year. And if you're still rocking Windows vista or XP on your desktop boxes, it's time to upgrade.
Whether We Like It or Not, Touch Screen Laptops Are Probably the Future
There's been a lot of backlash in the media about these newer touch screen Laptops and how they're doomed to failure. However, most of that really isn't about touch as a user interface at all, but rather Windows 8 and the bad rap it's getting for it's radical interface redesign. Before Windows 8, people criticized tablet Laptops (which have been around for over a decade) because they were thick and heavy and expensive. Those barriers are gone, though, with today's thinner, lightweight laptops.
Like it or not, touch screen Laptops are becoming the new normal.
Windows 8's new interface was developed primarily for touch. Intel has also changed its laptop partner requirements so that all future Ultrabooks (with Haswell processors) will have to sport a touch screen.Keep in mind that the touch screen is really just another way to interact with your Laptop. You still have your keyboard and your mouse (or trackpad) when you want them and can use the touch screen as little or as much as you want. (After using a touch screen for a while, though, you may find yourself attempting to tap and swipe any non-touch displays you come into contact with.)
If the added cost of the touch screen and the possible battery life hit don't matter much to you, you don't have anything to lose—and you might very well enjoy that touch screen as much as you do the one on your tablet.