Microsoft corp. plans to give users of the next version of its windows operating system touch screen controls as one option for controlling the software.
Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Steve Ballmer showed off new windows features based on software it calls Multi-Touch that will be part of Windows 7, the next version of windows, which was due out in late 2009. The ability to use touch to give users fingertip control of their screens could help revolutionize how computer desktops and mobile phones are controlled and would be an alternative to existing mice, keyboard and pen-based user controls.
During a joint interview Ballmer said touch screen controls was one example of how Microsoft would improve on existing windows software. Microsoft is seeking to one-up Apple Inc, which made touch-screen software central to the success of its iPhone mobile device, which combines computer, phone and web features and has sold around 6 million units in its first 11 months.
After more than a decade of slow development, Gates said new ways of interacting with computers other than keyboards and mice have matured to the point where they are ready to go mainstream. "We are at an interesting juncture where almost all of the interaction is with the computer and mouse, today, and, over the year to come, the role of speech, vision, ink, all of those will become huge, " Gates commented in 2008. He was referring to technologies that give users the ability to control computers with voice commands, detect and sort different kinds of images and use electronic ink instead of typing for computer input. Multi-touch software builds on existing capabilities Microsoft has introduced in recent years including surface, for interacting with large tabletop computer displays, Touch wall for mounted screens and Tablet PCs for touch-screen notebooks.
In a demonstration of touch-screen capabilities to be offered in windows 7, Microsoft showed a new application called Touchable Paint that lets a user paint with their fingers, as well as software to organize photos or navigate maps by touch. It is not about complete replacement of the mouse. Microsoft is trying to learn from the reaction to Windows Vista, the latest version of its OS, which was introduced in January 2007 but faced initial criticism for being incompatible with many older applications. Microsoft has sold 150 million copies of Vista, up from 140 million the company reported it had sold a month ago.
Microsoft had learned lessons about making dramatic changes in the way users interact with new versions of Windows. Vista followed five years after the previous Windows upgrade and was beset by delays due to the complexity of updating a piece of software with 50 million lines of code that runs on more than 90% of the world's computers. After the problems of releasing Vista in a timely manner, Ballmer pledged to never again wait so long between releases of its Windows operating system. Microsoft has said it expected to release the new operating Windows 7around three years after the early 2007 release of Windows Vista. It was acknowledged that Microsoft considered Apple a formidable competitor. But the two companies, audiences were vastly different in scale, with Apple supplying around 10 million computers in the year of 2008 versus the roughly 290 million machine which PC makers will sell running Microsoft Windows.
Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Steve Ballmer showed off new windows features based on software it calls Multi-Touch that will be part of Windows 7, the next version of windows, which was due out in late 2009. The ability to use touch to give users fingertip control of their screens could help revolutionize how computer desktops and mobile phones are controlled and would be an alternative to existing mice, keyboard and pen-based user controls.
During a joint interview Ballmer said touch screen controls was one example of how Microsoft would improve on existing windows software. Microsoft is seeking to one-up Apple Inc, which made touch-screen software central to the success of its iPhone mobile device, which combines computer, phone and web features and has sold around 6 million units in its first 11 months.
After more than a decade of slow development, Gates said new ways of interacting with computers other than keyboards and mice have matured to the point where they are ready to go mainstream. "We are at an interesting juncture where almost all of the interaction is with the computer and mouse, today, and, over the year to come, the role of speech, vision, ink, all of those will become huge, " Gates commented in 2008. He was referring to technologies that give users the ability to control computers with voice commands, detect and sort different kinds of images and use electronic ink instead of typing for computer input. Multi-touch software builds on existing capabilities Microsoft has introduced in recent years including surface, for interacting with large tabletop computer displays, Touch wall for mounted screens and Tablet PCs for touch-screen notebooks.
In a demonstration of touch-screen capabilities to be offered in windows 7, Microsoft showed a new application called Touchable Paint that lets a user paint with their fingers, as well as software to organize photos or navigate maps by touch. It is not about complete replacement of the mouse. Microsoft is trying to learn from the reaction to Windows Vista, the latest version of its OS, which was introduced in January 2007 but faced initial criticism for being incompatible with many older applications. Microsoft has sold 150 million copies of Vista, up from 140 million the company reported it had sold a month ago.
Microsoft had learned lessons about making dramatic changes in the way users interact with new versions of Windows. Vista followed five years after the previous Windows upgrade and was beset by delays due to the complexity of updating a piece of software with 50 million lines of code that runs on more than 90% of the world's computers. After the problems of releasing Vista in a timely manner, Ballmer pledged to never again wait so long between releases of its Windows operating system. Microsoft has said it expected to release the new operating Windows 7around three years after the early 2007 release of Windows Vista. It was acknowledged that Microsoft considered Apple a formidable competitor. But the two companies, audiences were vastly different in scale, with Apple supplying around 10 million computers in the year of 2008 versus the roughly 290 million machine which PC makers will sell running Microsoft Windows.