Now an Ultrabook with a touch screen. Is this the future?

Touch screen is so ubiquitous that almost all the devices from Microwaves and refrigerators to computers want it. What’s stopping a Ultrabook, the new form factor which you will hear a lot in 2012,  from getting one?

As per Digitimes, Ultrabook makers are experimenting with touch screens on Ultrabooks and LCD panel suppliers are already delivering touch modules to the manufacturers.

This is really exciting news (if true) and probably would be an elixir for many players (Intel, Microsoft, Dell etc…) in the PC industry. iPads have eaten away PC market share and many players have been left out. Apple and its suppliers were the only real players with iPad chipping away market share from the laptops and netbook segment. Acer, Asus and Lenovo are betting big on Ultrabook segment.

Intel which missed out on both smartphones and tablets want to capture some mobile market badly. Microsoft which doesn’t yet have a foothold in the tablet market would like this as well. And of course a whole host of failed tablet makers like Dell, Acer and Asus want this as well.

Looks like a touch screen Ultrabook has the makings of a blockbuster with the industry heavy weights blessing. Now it all boils down to the execution and the form factor. The success of iPad did not come from its touch screen but came from its mobility and portability. There’s the apps dynamic to the iPad phenomenon, but when you throw in a PC dimension and with Windows 8 and its vast ecosystem, which will run on these Ultrabooks, Windows almost always wins.

Ultrabooks have solved the portability challenges with their razor-thin designs and extremely low weights. All they need now is to slide the touch functionality seamlessly.

How will the new touch Ultrabook be? Would it be like a detachable keyboard like Asus Transformer or will have some innovative design to glue it all together?

Tablet as a full-fledged computer has its limitations, lack of true multi-tasking being one. Tablets still have a gaping void in their usability.

Would a touch screen Ultrabook fill the gap left by Tablets?