Touch-and the Next PC

I've been using a Windows 8-loaded Samsung Slate 7, for a couple of months now. Not exclusively, though: I've had to split my time between my new MacBook Air 11, a UbiSlate 7C (the Akaash 2, more or less), and a few other gadgets. But, yes, off and on.

I don't like the Slate 7's stretched-out, widescreen shape. It's not the best form factor for a tablet — this is among the biggest of the tablets around. But on the desktop, placed horizontally in its dock, it's a natural.

That versatility is the nice thing about this package, and this would apply to most Windows 8 tablets that ship with a dock. It transforms from tablet to desktop in a jiffy, with its pocket-size dock and a full-size keyboard (I'm using a Microsoft Bluetooth keyboard).

Touch and personal computers have been mutually exclusive. Touch has stayed confined to tablets, smartphones and public info or service terminals (and some aircraft displays). Even Apple, pioneers of the all-touch phone and creators of the tablet market, have stayed away from touch on the PC. I was seriously expecting touch on the new MacBooks, which is why I waited so long to buy my Air — but no such luck.

Windows 8 will change that.

After three months of using Windows 8 on various platforms, I'm clear about this: it sucks on a regular desktop, laptop, ultrabook, or even on a MacBook. Its stellar feature, the interface formerly called Metro, is brilliant — on a tablet. On a touch-less laptop, you have to fumble and hunt for the app you want — finally resorting to the search (sort of like an iPad with too many icons).

But a tablet changes all that. Windows 8 is simply a natural, on a touch device. The “no-chrome” design of Metro apps is simple, elegant, intuitive—all of the screen space goes to the work area, with the “chrome” — the menus, buttons, palettes all coming in when you need them, with a single swipe from top or bottom.

And when you dock that tablet and use a wireless keyboard, you get a desktop PC. But one with touch. Works as well as a PC, with all your Windows apps fully functional, plus the elegance of touch-enabled Metro — and then you pull it out of its dock and get a tablet to go.

I still don't see enterprises rushing to upgrade to Windows 8 on their current PCs. I still see them downgrading to Windows 7 or lower when they buy regular PCs preloaded with Windows 8 (I still use XP on my older laptop, downgraded from whatever shipped on it). I don't see Microsoft selling a lot of Windows 8 upgrades beyond its OEM shipments, nor users downloading millions of $20 copies the way Apple's users did with Mountain Lion.

But what I do see Windows 8 doing is pushing the PC world to Touch. We will see an array of Windows 8 devices: not just tablets but laptops and desktop all-in-ones, all touch enabled, in 2013.

Apple loves to talk about the post-PC era. Even though they do sell lots of conventional (if very sexy) PCs and laptops. But the PC era ain't over till the fat lady sings, and Windows 8 will give it some new life, something new for consumers to look forward to. Enterprises still won't jump in — they are slow, steady, careful — but consumers will.