Half of kids under the age of 15 will be bought touchscreen computers like the Apple iPad rather than using mouse and keyboard by 2015, according to the latest research by Gartner.
Analysts Gartner believe that computers bought for kids and leisure will have a 50/50 shot at being a touchscreen PC, but that only 10 per cent of computers bought for business will be utilising the technology.
The latter needs little explanation, with typing being kind of important for productivity, and not even Apple managing to provide a tactile comfortable typing experience to date on a capacitive touchscreen.
But the interesting assertion is that touchscreens will start to take a massive slice of the market for computers bought for kids.
Younger generation
"What we're going to see is the younger generation beginning to use touchscreen computers ahead of enterprises," said Leslie Fiering, research vice president at Gartner.
"By 2015, we expect more than 50 percent of PCs purchased for users under the age of 15 will have touchscreens, up from fewer than 2 percent in 2009.
"On the other hand, we are predicting that fewer than 10 percent of PCs sold to enterprises in 2015 for mainstream knowledge workers will have touchscreens."
Give work the finger
Gartner's Ms Fiering believes that it will be the consumer market that provides the push for touchscreen technology into the work place.
"As with many recent technology advances, touch adoption will be led by consumers and only gradually get accepted by the enterprise," she added.
What will be different here is the expected widespread adoption of touch by education, so that an entire generation will graduate within the next 10 to 15 years for whom touch input is totally natural."
