The end of WIMP and the rise of Touch
I recently bought a Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t multi-touch tablet/netbook. It was on sale for $200 off and I just couldn't resist. I figured it'd be a great way to test out the variety of new tablet OS's coming out and to compare them with my much beloved iPad.
Context & Ripple Effects
The S10-3t sits at the end of a long convertible lineage this site has tracked since the mid-2000s: early adopters ordering new Tablet PCs back in 2005, claims that the format finally worked by early 2006, and Ars noting Tablet PCs were on the rise by mid-2007. Pen-and-digitizer hardware kept frustrating users along the way, most visibly in GottaBeMobile's exasperation with Dell and N-Trig in late 2008.
What changed by June 2010 is that touch arrived without the pen: Lenovo put a $200 discount behind a consumer-priced multitouch convertible while its own CES hybrid laptop/tablet and chief executive Yang Yuanqing's March forecast — mobile Internet devices reaching 80% of company sales within five years — signaled where the vendor's mix was heading. Beattie treats the machine not as a productivity tool but as a test bench for new tablet operating systems measured against the iPad.
First-order effects
- Buyers get a sub-premium entry point into touch computing: a $200-off S10-3t convertible that runs Windows but exposes the screen directly to finger input, letting owners compare emerging tablet OSes against Apple's iPad on real hardware.
- Lenovo gains a consumer showcase for its touch strategy months after the CES hybrid announcement, reinforcing Yang Yuanqing's stated bet that portable, Internet-capable devices will dominate its sales mix within five years.
Second-order effects
- Rival PC makers face pressure to add capacitive multitouch to commodity netbooks rather than rely on pen digitizers, whose reliability problems Dell's N-Trig partnership already exposed in 2008.
- Microsoft's pointer-centric Windows interface becomes the weak link on these machines: as reviewers benchmark tablet OSes against the iPad, WIMP-style navigation is what gets judged inadequate, pushing OEMs toward touch-first software layers.
Third-order effects
- If touch-first interfaces keep winning on convertibles, the industry splits into two interaction models — direct manipulation for consumption devices and WIMP for legacy desktop work — forcing Microsoft to rethink an interface designed around the mouse.
- Lenovo's trajectory from desktops to laptops to tablets, already visible in ThinkPad and IdeaPad outselling its desktop line per Yang's own observation, points toward PC makers competing on industrial design and touch experience rather than raw specifications.
The trend: Personal computing is transitioning from the pointer-driven WIMP paradigm to direct-touch interfaces, with inexpensive convertible hardware serving as the bridge during the shift.