Touch Screen Laptops
The Touchscreen is a Complement for Mouse and Keyboard
Perhaps that's an extreme example, though. Even in everyday use, I find myself touching the screens of computers (whether they have touchscreens or not) because I can do things faster and more intuitively.
If you want to launch a program on your desktop, which makes more sense? Reach down to a special glass surface and drag a finger across it just long enough to land a floating pointer arrow on top of the icon, and then tap?WHICH MAKES MORE SENSE?Or simply reach up to a visible icon and tap it? Why try to aim that pointer at a little X icon, or remember keyboard shortcuts like Alt-F4, when I can just swipe down from the top of the screen to close a Windows 8 program? Why painstakingly zoom a web browser in 10 percent increments using a disembodied keyboard or trackpad when you can smoothly manipulate it between your fingers with pinch-to-zoom? I now find myself doing, or at least wishing I could do, these things all the time.
Even in Windows 8's desktop mode, which is still difficult enough to manipulate with touch alone that you'll probably want a mouse and keyboard, I'm constantly reaching up to that vertical touchscreen surface to grab windows and snap them to either side.
Of course, these things particularly make sense for Windows systems because of how terrible Windows trackpads are on average. We've used a few good ones this year, but on the whole they're buggy and unresponsive, and the touchscreens on these Windows 8 laptops are a breath of fresh air by comparison. Their poor performance certainly contributed to my willingness to give the touchscreen a real try. But even if they weren't so bad, I think I'd still prefer the direct control I get with the screen. After all, my MacBook Air touchpad is just fine, and I still have to restrain myself from touching its launcher bar from time to time.