Microsoft’s bet that people would come around to Windows 8 once they got to experience it on touch-based PCs hasn’t gone well so far. Computerworld reports that research firm IDC will “likely” drop its estimates on touch PC shipments from 17% to 18% of all laptops shipped in 2013 to between 10% and 15% of all laptops. IDC analyst Bob O’Donnell tells Computerworld that high prices on touch-based notebooks are big reason why touch-centric PCs haven’t taken off yet this year.
“They’re generally in the $699 to $799 range,” he explained. “That’s hundreds more, sometimes as much as double the price, of non-touch notebooks.”
What’s more, O’Donnell says that many consumers simply don’t see touch as an essential component of personal computers yet. For the moment, it seems that they want smartphones, tablets and PCs to have different functionality and see no reason to spend money on PC with touch capabilities when they’re perfectly happy using PCs with mice and keyboards.
“Touch is just not that compelling for most,” he said. “There are not that many touch-required apps that people feel they must have… The big challenge Microsoft faces is doing whatever it can to make Windows 8 work in a non-touch environment. 90% of the PCs sold this year are not going to have touch.”
