In a rare spot of good news for the PC industry, touchscreen PCs are selling above expectations. The corresponding bad news is that they basically out of some models for a while. We guess people just really like poking icons, for some reason.
In fact, the writing is pretty much on the wall. If your PC doesn’t let you poke at it, it is unwanted:
IDC’s O’Donnell added, however, that non-touch Windows 8 PCs are not doing so well. “The non-touch machines are selling below expectations,” he said. “If high-end machines are selling better than expected. Great. But that doesn’t make up for low-end volume machines.”
It’s not hard to see the appeal. Touchscreens are a lot more intuitive than a keyboard and mouse, and not everybody is particularly good at using the two, especially children and the elderly. It can also be a useful control scheme in casual games, and let’s face it, the Internet, word processing, and Plants Vs. Zombies is probably the only reason most people even own a computer in the first place.
What does this mean for the struggling PC market? Touchscreens, touchscreens and more touchscreens. If they’re selling, expect PC makers to ride this trend right into the ground. Of course, it’s unlikely the traditional PC will be entirely dead, but expect there to be fewer of them and for prices to drop as “budget” machines.