HP wants to be touched...again

Consumers itching for something to spend their money on this holiday season--all two of you--may be interested in Hewlett-Packard's continued touch-screen aspirations.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that HP plans to release a touch-screen-enabled laptop by year's end. Price and exact release date were unavailable at this time.

Last year HP released the TouchSmart IQ770 and this year the IQ506. Both are touch-screen desktops that were HP's first major forays into the technology.

According to the article, the new laptop is only the latest in a series of touch-oriented devices, including an upcoming line of cell phones that will become a priority of HP's consumer strategy.

WSJ sources commented that HP is "building a whole family of touch." The sources went on to say that HP is working on a line of consumer cell phones that feature touch screens and the first such phone will be introduced in Europe this year. HP plans to start selling the phones through a U.S. cellular carrier within the next year or so, according to the article.

The article also mentions that HP is planning to introduce a new 10-inch screen Netbook this year. The Netbook will reportedly not have a touch screen however.

[ace10134]

I'll touch you.

[kathka]

HP already has a touchscreen laptop. It is the TX2500, which was preceded by the TX2000 and the TX1000. The TX1000 actually came before the touchsmart desktop, but was so horribly executed I can see why HP (and everyone else would like to forget it). So... releasing a touch screen enabled laptop by year's end has already been accomplished. Executing well on a touch enabled laptop... well let's see if HP can pull it off.

[mykick22]

@kathka: that's a tablet pc, big difference. "Touch" devices usually have gestures associated with certain touches, better quality display, and no "pen imput" will be interesting to see the phones, I don't care about the laptops lol I will NEVER go back to windows.

[BryanMG]

Windows Mobile 7 is supposed to be coming out sometime in the first half of next year and it is supposed to support gesture based input. I wonder if these touch screen phones have been made with Windows Mobile 7 in mind.
I like HP products and will be very interested to see all these new touch devices.

[TCrimson05]

I think they'll pull it off. I have the aforementioned IQ506 and couldn't be happier with the thing. Well I'm at least confident about the touch laptop. As far as the cell phones....I'll withhold any opinion until i see what it offers.

[tcr071]

The TX series notebooks have all had passive digitizers (touch) whereas the newer ones have also incorporated Wacom active digitizers (pen) but they have ALL been touch enabled. Windows Vista has support for gestures such as swiping your hand in any 8 directions can copy, paste, open programs, etc. The passive digitizer was poorly made and not very accurate but it was touch nevertheless.

The Touchsmart PC's are great but they only support one input at a time and for a screen that size it is really kind of ridiculous that it wasn't a muti-touch screen. The notebook they come out with needs to support AT LEAST two simultaneous inputs or it will be worthless.

To see a multi-touch enabled notebook check out the Dell Latitude XT. It is a tablet with up to 10 simultaneous inputs and some really awesome specifically designed software to utilize it. A quick youtube search can show some demonstrations.

[pdaaccessory]

I like all the products of HP and be waiting for all that new touch devices.

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