Touch Could Soon Become Standard Ultrabook Feature

While one may argue that strange is the fact that a decision like this is still up in the air, it seems that ultrabook makers could soon touchscreen support into a standard feature before the year is out.

Microsoft and Intel, the two 800-pound guerrillas of the computing industry have long decried the lack of available touch enabled devices in the market. Redmond, in fact, cites this as one of the reason of the slow uptake of Windows 8 — an operating system with touch at its very heart.

If it were up to the notebook makers, they would be all too happy to include touch support on any and all notebooks and laptops. In fact, recent rumors have suggested that something like this is planned.

But sadly, strong demand for touch panels has reportedly caused a shortage of no less than 20 percent, enough to cancel out the increase in marketing subsidies that Intel so graciously implemented for ultrabooks housing its platforms.

The world’s largest CPU maker is all set to unleash its Haswell platform this summer.

And soon enough the third-generation lineup of ultrabooks will soon hit the market before the vitally important Holiday shopping season. The latest is that Intel is about to make touch standard for all devices that come under the ultrabook banner.

So either you’re in or you’re out!

Basically, every other consumer electronic device now supports touch input and touchscreen functionality. And ultrabooks, aptly so, should be next in line to have this as standard.

At the end of the day it all comes down to supply issues. While producing a 5, 7 or 10 inch touch panel for specific devices (like tablets) at specific quantities is easy, producing them for larger screen sizes comes with its own set of risks.

Nevertheless, if this is made a standard, the company that would be the most pleased is Microsoft. Redmond has, on more than one occasion, reiterated that Windows 8 works best with touch.