Microsoft is expected to launch Windows 8 during the fall and we already see signs that they will hit hard on the marketing drum for the touchscreen features in the operating system. ASUS and Acer is expected to put big focus on computers with exactly those features.
Market analysts predict that a total of 5 percent of all laptops will be shipped with touchscreens at the end of the year. Both ASUS and Acer is said to make an extra big investment, on what can be seen as a new opportunity. Both of them should a while back have had a close cooperation with ODM partners to develop touchscreen based computers. HP and Lenovo is also supposed to be developing similar computers, and one that has recieved alot of attention is Lenovo Yoga.
Adding touchscreens does not come cheap. The extra BOM cost (Bill Of Materials) for 13 inch laptops is expected to be at $75, while for 15 inch laptops the added cost becomes a little higher, namely $82. For the end-consumer it would mean that a final price would be twice that – $150 and $164. There is no shortage of sceptics around the idea of adding touch features to the screens for laptops and it has many times been called an ”ergonomic nightmare”.
Microsoft and their partners seem to think differently, among others Intel has said that Windows 8 is one of the greatest thingsthat has happened to them.
Leave a Reply