Touchscreens are the future, and who is opposed to this idea will be left behind – this seems to be Intel’s new policy.

After Intel started the Ultrabook trend, radically changed the way we think a portable computer should look like, Intel is now starting a new revolution, promoting touchscreens on the list of standard technical specifications of Ultrabooks.

Anand Kaishmann, Intel product manager, explained Intel’s firm believes regarding using the touchscreen interface to increase productivity.

To support these believes, Intel has started to encourage all their hardware partners to include touchscreens on as many new Ultrabooks models as possible.

This happens after Intel presented the new Ultrabook family with Clamshell design based on the Ivy Bridge platform and increased efficiency processors created using the 22 nm manufacturing process.

Intel’s decision to encourage using touchscreens combined with the Clamshell format is out of the ordinary given the sad history of the companies which pioneered this design concept.

A recent example is Sony with the S2 tablet, which failed to receive a warm welcome from consumers and was pulled from stores.

Not even legendary Steve Jobs had good thoughts about this combination, concluding that vertical touchscreens are uncomfortable.

From a practical point of view, between the physical keyboard and vertical touchscreen of a laptop, this last option seems a bit unlikely in what interacting with apps is concerned. Windows 8 might contradict things, if not through the exceptional quality of the new Metro interface through the clumsiness and lack of flexibility proven in the lack of a touchscreen.

It is very hard to say right now if there is a hidden understanding between Intel and Microsoft. Some might say that Microsoft is promoting the need of touchscreens, through an operating system, and Intel comes with the hardware solution to ignite consumers need to upgrade and spend more money on cutting edge equipments.