You mean the devices that have removable screens or swing arms to allow you to actually get the display into an ergonomic position? Yea, the fact that they have to do that really tells you everything about the ergonomics of vertical touchscreens.
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Apple Says Touchscreen Macs 'Not a Particularly Useful or Appropriate Application of Multi-Touch'
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While touch screens on laptops have their place (they're optional, used in tandem with keyboard/mouse), the biggest growth is in detachables like Surface or in convertibles, like the HP "360" notebooks. These are big markets and are thriving. You get the best of both worlds without getting a sore arm. These are full fledged notebooks, unlike the iPad (which is great for a tablet, not so much as a laptop replacement).
I'm afraid I am giving away my age here, but in answer to your question.
The first screen input computer I actually used was a Compaq TC1000 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_TC1000) and I knew back then that this felt wrong on a notebook.
The detail here is actually that the TC1000 was not finger touch input, but digitizer. Never the less, wobbly screen, especially on a lap or when being used while led flat on a couch or bed.
You mean the devices that have removable screens or swing arms to allow you to actually get the display into an ergonomic position? Yea, the fact that they have to do that really tells you everything about the ergonomics of vertical touchscreens.
Then they shuold have thought that themselves, how do i solve the ergonomics of a touch screen?
try to rest your arms on the palm rest from your mac, and try to reach the fn keys...see? you can easily access them WITHOUT lifting your arm, so a more practical choice, or maybe you have little arms
But pointing to something on-screen is different than actually trying to work on a touch screen laptop or desktop computer. That's the issue people who think they want a touchscreen laptop / desktop don't get until the have one [and then don't use the touch screen]. The fastest, most efficient, input method when your hands are resting on the flat horizontal plane in front of you is always going to be the keyboard and trackpad. The idea that raising your hands to touch the screen, is not efficient, but actually a distraction from what is natural and efficient in keeping your hands on the keyboard.
It's an entirely different thing when you're holding a smartphone or tablet, to interact with the screen itself, because one hand is [usually] holding the device while the other hand is used to interact with the screen. But that's not true of working on a laptop or desktop, where the natural resting position of your hands in on the horizontal plane - the keyboard and wrist rest of a laptop or the desk itself in the case of a desktop computer.
Microsoft agrees, the Surface Studio goes almost flat for that purpose
Is Jobs now "working" for Microsoft?? No they simply have a clever C.E.O.
Hardly vertical
EDIT:
Seems Apple cannot follow it's own ideas
That's different, you can detach the iPad and use it as a standalone tablet.
I'm sure Apple could make a 2-in-1 tablet/MacBook, but they don't see that as the future.
I believe in this commercial they are making emphasis of a person typing a large document.Then why advertise "What is a computer"?!?
I personally have this setup and touching the screen in this mode is also fruitless. Most of the time the iPad falls backward.
Microsoft agrees, the Surface Studio goes almost flat for that purpose
Is Jobs now "working" for Microsoft?? No they simply have a clever C.E.O.
Hardly vertical
EDIT:
Seems Apple cannot follow it's own ideas
THAT is how you do it with a touchscreen PC. Recline the monitor. The 'gorilla arms' vertical stance is nothing but a BS excuse from Apple. I know it. Look at Wacom's Cintiq digitizers. They were designed for this very reason to act as virtual 'drafting tables' and yet they are touchscreens made for multi-touch purposes along with the stylus.
Hell, even the cheapest Surface Pro 3 was about $400 and it is a touchscreen hybrid. How can it be THAT expensive for Apple to build besides their BS 'premium' excuse? There is no such thing as premium because once a company goes that path, it'll bite them in the rear. Starbucks Coffee is another example of trying to pull 'premium' over coffee. How can it be premium when it's mass market? It's marketing illusion. Nothing more.
Microsoft did the right thing here. People keep thinking Satya = Ballmer. That is not the case. Compared to Nadella, Cook is a fool, along with the execs. And I don't agree with Jony on this at all. Nothing but PR spin to deflect the touchscreen standardization. They should've gone hybrid around the time the Surface Book came out.
The keyboard is fine, i have no beef with it. I even like the one on the 12 inch macbook. I'm just saying that that the touch bar is ridiculous when many of us are waiting for osx in ipad pro form. For Windows devices this is already a reality, has been for a long time, the only thing apple needs is the ipad to run osx. Why not just sell two models of the ipad, the pro with osx and the non pro with ios. That would be nice. Instead they spend two years working on, what I consider to be, a gimmick.
WHY ALL CAPS?!?! Yes of course I touch the iPhone's screen to use it. But a huge laptop screen would show the fingerprints way more I'd imagine and since the main functionality still wouldn't involve touching it, you'd probably want to clean it if you were just going to use the keyboard.
I think its more that they don't want to impact iPad sales negatively, since those sales have been decreasing anyways.
But they aren't the "best of both worlds", they're just a different compromise (which, it should be said, is what some users want). But look at the Surface Book's "tablet". Low battery life, heavy, not particularly powerful. Sure you can USE it, but I can't see that half of the device really competing with dedicated tablets. And then as a laptop, it's also not particularly powerful, doesn't have particularly great I/O, and is heavy... All because it lets you detach the screen. It's a compromise, just like everything else. I fail to see how it's universally better than having a best in class laptop and a best in class tablet. Two different approaches.
It's more that they don't want to follow customers, they want customers to follow them....except Steve's gone now, and there's no one with his persona to make it happen anymore!
That's because Apple did NOT do a good job designing a more stable cover or hinge to keep the iPad from falling back. They need to do a better job with improved hinges for keyboard covers for this reason. Surface Book or Surface Pro have better kickstand designs than that because it was well thought out. If one is to do the touchscreen mode, recline the screen. If one is going to do some 'old school' typing/mouse method, go vertical.
I think Apple's main problem right now is the mixed message they have going on. On one hand, you have iOS which is solely touch, but they added a keyboard as a first class accessory that guarantees that you will be moving your hand from the keyboard to the screen constantly. Then you have the mac, where suddenly this idea is terrible and makes no sense.
I think eventually (next 3-5 years) iOS is going to take over completely, gaining trackpad support and things like USB-C/TB3 ports in a macbook like enclosure with detachable iPad Pro screen (Like Surface Book, but actually a good tablet.) These macbooks are just the sounding of the death knell for macOS. I think we will really find out next year if Apple continues to ditch the neglected desktop lines (And never releases a wireless touchbar keyboard for them.)
I think eventually (next 3-5 years) iOS is going to take over completely, gaining trackpad support and things like USB-C/TB3 ports in a macbook like enclosure with detachable iPad Pro screen (Like Surface Book, but actually a good tablet.) These macbooks are just the sounding of the death knell for macOS. I think we will really find out next year if Apple continues to ditch the neglected desktop lines (And never releases a wireless touchbar keyboard for them.)
Christ... no one removed the function keys.
I expect people not knowing that on somewhere with a mixed base like The Verge or Gizmodo, but it just sounds dumb on MacRumors.
My question is why the **** do I have to redesign a laptop to not be a laptop just to put in a touchscreen in the first place.
Why would I want that compromised experience when I paid for a laptop?
This is what I don't get about the touchscreen brigade, they've engineered some cool stuff to get around the fact that human physiology really doesn't like vertical touchscreens....without answering why the **** I would want to interact with my desktop UI on a touchscreen in the first place.
If I have to hold my touchscreen horizontally alway, I'm just going to use an iPad.