Mouse may die if Microsoft has its way
By Gareth Powell
Microsoft will be the biggest investor in Microsoft N-trig, an Israeli start-up that makes touch-sensing screen hardware. The start-up capital will be US$24 million capital and the other investors will be mainly venture-capital firms.
The idea is that the technology on which N-trig is working will eventually replace the computer mouse. And that a priority will be that N-trig will have the technology ready to work with Windows 7 which will make a very obvious differentiator from Windows Vista which Microsoft will soon bury in its dark archives. It did the same with Windows ME. Why not Vista?
What has driven this investment is the success of the Apple iPhone which introduced, with massive success, a new way of interfacing with electronic equipment. It is intuitive, easy to use, and is now embedded as the way to go in the minds of many millions of users.
Apple has not yet done it with the Mac which is not hand-held and has profound and major differences to a hand-held machine. Never mind, Microsoft’s gamble is that users may eventually prefer to control their computers as they would their iPhone, with finger gestures rather mouse point and click.
Microsoft is deeply integrating touch features into Windows 7 and this investment shows it is willing to go several steps further.
The Wall Street Journal says Microsoft is leaning on — the Wall Street Journal prefers ‘mobilizing’ — software-application makers, PC companies and component suppliers such as N-trig to adapt their products for Windows 7.
The Wall Street Journal admits that touch-sensing PCs could end up as little more than a gimmick. But, the logic is, if it catches on with a mobile phone, it could be the new way of interacting with a computer.
Touchscreen users can zoom in on maps by pinching their fingers together and pivot around a three-dimensional map by sweeping their hands across the screen. The problem is that with the iPhone it is extremely easy to do. With a computer anything that makes you put your hands up to the screen is dashed tiring. If you are sitting in front of your computer as you read this, try it. You will not like it.
Even Microsoft has its doubts. Bill Veghte, senior VP for Microsoft’s Windows business, says touchscreens aren’t useful for all PC applications. Nor are they likely ever to replace keyboards, which are more efficient for entering text. This is true and it is good that Microsoft has at least recognized that basic truth.
N-Trig’s touchscreen technology is already used in notebooks from Dell which is not a company without its problems although it would be wrong to lay the blame at the door of touchscreens. The other computer company that likes the idea is Hewlett-Packard with its TouchSmart line of computers.
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