More than half of PCs purchased for use by under 15s in 2015 will have a touchscreen, says Gartner, compared to just two percent last year.
However, when it comes to PCs for business use, less than 10 percent will have a touchscreen by 2015.
Leslie Fiering, research vice president at Gartner, said there is renewed interest in touch input, despite the fact the technology has been around for more than 20 years.
"Multitouch on smartphones and the Apple iPhone phenomenon have shown users how useful touch can be with the right implementation, and Apple's introduction of the larger iPad has set off a wave of speculation about changing the industry," said Fiering.
Apple's smartphone has helped drive the popularity of touchscreen devices
"What we're going to see is the younger generation beginning to use touchscreen computers ahead of organisations."
Gartner said the "muscle memory of mouse users and the potential problems of moving a user's hands from the keyboard to the mouse will create particular adoption barriers" in business use.
"As with many recent technology advances, touch adoption will be led by consumers and only gradually get accepted by the organisation," Fiering said.
"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 who touch input is totally natural."
See also: Touchscreen mobiles see 159% growth
Comments
Ramok said: Are you kidding in your graphic editing a properly programmed touch screen will make the process more natural Imagine working on a piece and instead of using menus to switch to a paint brush u just pick one up and paint on the screen The computer becomes your easel As a programmer I can see the value of touch screens for some programming jobs For them to be useful as a programming tool something similar to the Alice educational software that teaches students computer programming in a 3d environment would have to be developed
Batch said: I agree that touch screens wont be appropriate in all cases but think that the number of apps that will lend themselves to it will be surprisingly largeBTW I first work on software development in relation to a PC based touch screen FX dealing system in 1986
Cyteck said: I happen to strongly agree with Andrew touch screen technology does have a value but only within the appropriate context Touch screens are fine in a retail environment or perhaps at check in desks at airports or in theaters or cinema ticketing halls But I cannot see myself using a touch screen at home for SoHo work or editing images with something like photo-shop or even for searching the internet
Andrew said: Touch screens are suited to one or two applications but for most desktop applications the mouse and keyboard are a better choice I cant see touch screens being of any use to programmers for example
Bill Cannon said: In 1985 there were no restaurants using graphical touchscreen point of sale systemsIn 2010 it is estimated that 95 of new restaurants have or or are considering the purchase of a graphical touchscreen point of sale system