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The truth about touchscreen PCs

Nivedan Prakash examines the prospects of touchscreen PCs in the Indian market

Touchscreen technology has been sweeping the consumer electronics world, especially mobile phones where every leading smartphone vendor has several models that support this technology with varying degrees of efficacy. Of late, we have begun to see touchscreen technology being used in PCs with brands such as HP and Asus launching touch-enabled products.

Although this technology has quite successful on the mobile phone front, a question mark remains about its suitability for desktop PCs. [Or even notebooks for that matter. In the case of notebooks touch computing is making its

presence felt through touchpads that support input from more than one finger to offer iPhone-like experiences. There will be many more laptop users taking advantage of touch in this manner than through touchscreens. – Editor] Some industry experts believe that touchscreen PCs have not picked up in the Indian market but at the same time companies like HP and Asus claim that sales of these products are growing, albeit gradually.

Perspectives vary

According to Gartner, touchscreen PCs have been used as a technology differentiator for branding by companies such as HP. These products are displayed prominently in showrooms and they get a lot of attention from buyers. However, the same buyers end up buying lower-priced products in most cases.

Diptarup Chakraborti, Principal Research Analyst-Gartner, said, “Touchscreen PCs have not picked up in India. Sales of these PCs have been negligible, less than 0.1% of the total desktops sold annually are touchscreen based. The reason is that these PCs are expensive; they are priced at around Rs. 90,000. You can get a good desktop for Rs. 30,000. Therefore, it would take a lot for consumers to pay three times the cost of a normal desktop. Even the configuration is not all that different from that of a mid-range desktop.”

He added that Indian consumers and companies both see desktop PCs as relatively inexpensive products and they do not want to pay beyond a particular price for one.

Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director, MAIT, concurred, “When you look at a commoditized product, then touchscreen PCs clearly do not fall in that category. People use them for special purposes, such as in ATMs or kiosks etc. Moreover, they are definitely more expensive than conventional desktop PCs.”

Vinod Kumar, CTO of Novatium feels that Indian companies have primarily deployed touchscreen PCs in kiosks, ATMs and point of sale terminals. In the computer space, some high-end laptops support his feature but the number of people using these devices is limited.

That being said, HP and Asus are pumping touchscreen-based PCs into the market. For them, touch is rapidly becoming a common interface for software and devices. Touch-enabled surfaces are popping up everywhere—including laptop touchpads, cell phones with touchscreens, remote controls, and GPS devices amongst others.

Ketan Patel, Country Manager, Consumer Desktop PCs, HP India, said, “We are looking closely at the touch segment and have introduced top-of-the-line product offerings such as the HP TouchSmart PC and the Tx2 Multi-Touch Notebook. The HP TouchSmart PC is doing pretty well in India. As a touch-enabled all-in-one desktop PC, the TouchSmart IQ500 Series PC has relevance not only for the style conscious but also for technologically savvy consumers. Its capacity to reinvent the PC experience through its intuitive touchscreen interface that suggests the potential for use as an educational tool for both children and senior citizens or retirees who are first-time PC users. Its relevance also extends to the retail space where it can offer an interactive touch-based catalogue to enhance retail experiences.”

Stanley Wu, Country Head–Notebooks, Eee PC and Eee Top, ASUS India, opined that sales of touchscreen PCs are picking up in India. “This is a growing segment with many vendors entering the market. Sales should pick up once the market matures. The touch interface is one of the most intuitive and natural interfaces to use and we are receiving good response for our Eee Top PC, which is a touchscreen PC targeted at home users and first-time users,” added Wu. The Eee Top is priced at Rs 44,000 but while the price is closer to that of a conventional PC, it is built around Intel’s Atom processor so you can think of it as a desktop PC equivalent of a netbook.

HP referred to a Gartner study, which stated that the global capacitive touchscreen and touch button controller segment is projected to hit 1.3 billion units by 2012. As far as the Indian market is concerned, Gartner says that the total number of desktops sold in the country per quarter is about 1.5 to 1.6 million. However, the sales of touchscreen PCs would not exceed 500 units per quarter.

From the margins to the mainstream

At this point of time, we can’t argue that the touchscreen desktop PC category is moving from the margins into the mainstream. This technology is a mainstream one in the mobile world, thanks to the iPhone and competing products such as the N97. In the case of PCs, the touch mechanism has not been fine-tuned to the extent that phone manufacturers have. As of now, PC touch interfaces are quite rudimentary and mimic the actions that can be accomplished with a mouse.

Chakraborti commented that this technology could not enter the mainstream until prices fell or touchscreen technology itself becomes widely used. “If it remains a niche product category, where the input is happening through keyboard and mouse, I don’t see it becoming mainstream. As of now, at least for three to four quarters, I don’t see the touchscreen based products entering the mainstream of the Indian market,” he said.

HP and Asus disagree and believe that this technology will enter the mainstream soon. With demand for touch-enabled products surging globally, manufacturers worldwide are taking this trend seriously. With the increase in demand for touch-enabled products ranging across cell phones, MP3 players, GPS receivers, computers, and the extensive research going behind touch technology, the prices of these products are bound to go down, providing further impetus to demand.

Wu added, “The touchscreen PC market is moving into the mainstream and the main reason for this is increased awareness amongst consumers about this technology. Customers today want a product that is unique and offers them an edge over the usual products in the market. Such customers prefer touchscreen PCs. Also, the market for high-end products in India is steadily increasing and this has also led to touchscreen PCs moving into the mainstream.”

Falling LCD prices, advances in technology and the availability of touch-ready applications are all factors that can have a positive impact on this product category.

Handicapping factors

One of the limiting factors with regard to touchscreen technology is the comfort level that users have with it. Using your fingers to input data or control a phone is one thing; using your fingers on your PC’s screen is quite another. Even if prices fall below Rs. 40,000, users would still be uncomfortable buying such products. [Witness the fate of the much-heralded Tablet PC that, despite being the brainchild of Bill Gates, failed miserably. People tend to be quite conservative in learning how to use new methods of input or even old ways with new devices as in the case of tablets where Gates didn’t factor in that a generation had grown up using PCs and was more familiar with using keyboards than writing by hand. – Editor]

When you move away from familiar mouse technology—suddenly the hands are in a different plane (vertical rather than the familiar horizontal). Recognition of movements to identify writing and making that a form of input is important.

“The biggest hindrance is the price point. Touchscreen displays for PCs are significantly more expensive than conventional LCD monitors are. This is the single biggest challenge that this category faces as of now. Product categories are heading towards miniaturization. Touchscreen PCs are not found in that space,” asserted Mehta.

This apart, most consumers may not find touchscreen PCs different from their regular laptops or desktop PCs, and the technology is unlikely to spread beyond mobile phones. One would have to agree with the statement that high costs and limited functionality have kept touchscreen PCs out of the mainstream, leaving them limited to niche applications.

Asus, as a company, feels that this statement is true to a certain extent; however, one must understand that every new segment at its inception offers a niche product with limited functionality. A case in point is that of mobile phones eight years back, they were expensive, bulky devices only capable of making calls and people saw them as a niche product. Nowadays, practically everyone has a mobile phone that has basic multimedia functions and a camera at a fraction of the price of the cell phones of yesteryear. Similarly, touchscreen PCs could eventually percolate to the bottom end of the market offering functionality at an affordable price.

“Since touchscreen PCs are still a niche category, the cost of these products is comparatively high as compared to products without this technology. Since touch is fast becoming a common way of directly interacting with software and devices, we see the prices of these products coming down, thereby stimulating demand,” opined Patel.

Growth drivers

Some growth drivers for touchscreen PCs in the India market are the lifestyle segment, tech savvy users, people looking for an attractive home computing solution and first-time users both kids and the elderly who find a touch interface less intimidating than the conventional keyboard and mouse.

Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system will act as a trigger for touchscreen proliferation in the PC segment. This will be the first Windows operating system optimized for multi-touch features.

“Windows 7 would definitely help, but ultimately it is the usefulness of the touchscreen that would help. The mouse is something that we are used to and actions like double click would always be trickier in the touchscreen world,” said Kumar.

Apparently, recent advances in technology including improved picture quality and better sensitivity to touch, combined with falling LCD prices, are increasing the viability of touchscreens. Industry experts believe that rapidly falling touch panel prices, as more products enter the market, should accelerate the trend.

Crystal ball gazing

Touchscreen technology will end up on many consumer products as it offers a natural interface. We will see more products featuring this technology and the prices of touchscreen products will also drop. There will also be increased functionality in these products and their market share will grow over time. However, we will have to wait and watch to see if all of this will be true of the PC segment as well.

Touchscreen PCs could prove useful in delivering the benefits of ICT to rural consumers.

Vendors are touting touch as the next big thing in technology and consumers can look forward to many innovations in the future. However, whether it would prove to be a popular product category remains to be seen.

nivedan.prakash@expressindia.com