Detouring momentarily from business models to the UI, Microsoft just announced that its next-gen operating system, Windows 7, will be touch-screen compatible. The feature is getting top-level endorsement: CEO Steve Ballmer personally announced the future feature at the Wall Street Journal's "D: All Things Digital" conference, while Chairman Bill Gates articulated the company's vision of input beyond the keyboard: "Today almost all the interaction is keyboard-mouse. Over years to come, the role of speech, vision, ink — all of those — will be huge."
Windows 7 is slated to replace the controversial Vista in 2009. As explained in a post on the Microsoft Vista team's blog, its touch-screen capability derives from an earlier Microsoft touch initiative known as Surface.
As fans have predicted, the iPhone has kicked off the next round of UI innovations. Human-computer interactions 10 years down the road may not much resemble today's heavily text-input-centric approach, much as Windows (and of course the Apple OS that inspired it) transformed DOS. Inevitably, revolutions in interaction spawn new business models and opportunities. So far we've only scratched the surface of the potential for innovation in online media.
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