May 28, 2008Windows 7 Coming With Touchscreen & iPhone Interface?The next iteration of Windows, informally known as Windows 7, will not be out until early 2010. PC manufacturers such as Dell and HP will now focus on making machines that are capable of exploiting the new software, which bears more than a little resemblance to that used on Apple's iPhone.
In a demonstration of the next version of its Windows operating system, the software giant suggested that PC owners will be able to grab objects, move them around, and make them larger or smaller by dragging their fingers across the screen. The next iteration of Windows, informally known as Windows 7, will not be out until early 2010. PC manufacturers such as Dell and HP will now focus on making machines that are capable of exploiting the new software, which bears more than a little resemblance to that used on Apple's iPhone. At a conference in California, the world's largest software maker also reinforced the impression that the current version of Windows - Vista, which went on sale in January last year - had not lived up to expectations, and said it wanted to "do better" with the next release. A key feature of Windows 7 will allow people to touch the screen in multiple places simultaneously - much as on the iPhone - meaning that photos can be made smaller by 'grabbing' the corners with two fingers and pinching them together, or that a chord could be played on a virtual keyboard. Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, who is due to step down from his full time role at the company on July 1, said: "The way you interact with the system will change dramatically. Today, almost all the interaction is keyboard-mouse. Over the years to come, the role of speech, vision, ink - all those things - will be huge." A video of the new software on Microsoft's website shows the touchscreen technology being used to spin a globe, zoom in on places on a map, manipulate photos - and play a virtual piano. Pressing two fingers on the screen for a sustained period appears to have the equivalent effect of a right mouse click. "Touch-enabled surfaces are popping up everywhere, including cellphones, remote controls, GPS devices, and more," Chris Flores, a director on the Windows Client team at Microsoft, said. "What becomes even more compelling is when this experience is delivered to the PC on a variety of Windows laptops, all-in-one PCs, and in external monitors." Asked whether Microsoft or Apple would be first to market with a touchscreen computer, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, said: "We'll sell 290 million PCs, and Apple will sell 10 milllion PCs. They're fantastically successful and so are we, but it's a different job. Steve [Jobs, Apple's chief executive] can flip his hand and sell a few models, and I don't take a thing away from him." Details of Windows 7 remain sparse, but Microsoft executives said their goal was to start selling the software three years after the release of Vista, or around January 2010. Speaking alongside Mr Gates at the D: All Things Digital conference, Mr Ballmer said that "in hindsight", the company would have done some things differently in relation to the launch of Vista, which took five years to make and was released to lacklustre reviews in January last year. Microsoft had hoped that 2008 would be the year when businesses shifted their machines over to Vista, but many have failed to do so. Microsoft's announcements about Windows are watched closely by the technology industry, because the operating system makes up a significant chunk of the company's revenues, and both hardware and software manufacturers depend on it for their products. By the end of March, 140 million copies of Vista had been shipped, Microsoft said.
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