Hewlett-Packard Out-Touches Apple

Apple watchers assumed Jobs & Co. would be the first to offer a multitouch laptop, but Hewlett-Packard has beaten them to the punch

By Arik Hesseldahl

From the first time Steve Jobs demonstrated "the pinch"—the two-finger gesture used to zoom in and out of photos and Web pages on the iPhone—some Apple observers assumed it was just a matter of time before a multitouch-enabled screen showed up on the Mac.

That hasn't happened yet. But as of Nov. 19, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has beaten Apple (AAPL) to the punch, announcing the first multitouch-enabled notebook PC, the tx2. I can't help but wonder whether Apple just lost an important race.

Hewlett-Packard's tx2 is a convertible notebook, meaning its screen can pivot 180 degrees to show someone else what's on it or lie flat and act like a tablet PC. It's the first convertible notebook aimed directly at consumers. The tx2 sports HP's version of multitouch technology, which lets you use two fingers at once to manipulate images on the screen or make on-screen gestures that signify specific commands. A pinch motion works just like it does on an iPhone, letting you rotate pictures or press and drag files around. And the tx2 is priced to move—starting at $1,150, only $151 more than the starter MacBook. I briefly interacted with the machine during a meeting this week with HP.

From Star Trek to Ho-Hum

HP has been heavily promoting touch interfaces for about two years. Earlier this year the company launched its second touch-based desktop PC, the Touchsmart (BusinessWeek, 6/25/08). The tx2 is a direct evolutionary result of that. HP is also releasing a new model with a larger screen and multitouch support on Nov. 19.

Touch-enabled screens are nothing terribly new. Computers have long had the ability to accept input from a finger touched to a screen. When I take out cash from my bank, it's usually at an ATM with on-screen "buttons." Controlling computers by touching their displays was a fanciful idea in the 1980s, on TV's Star Trek: The Next Generation (BusinessWeek.com, 3/15/07). Now it's de rigeur.