It's just been announced that Sony is going to launch a new wave of VAIO laptops this Fall. At least a few of those new machines will come with touchscreens. This move would make Sony one of the only major manufacturers to roll out touchscreen computers on any sort of large scale.

This bevy of new VAIO's has been scheduled for a Fall release in order to coincide with the launch of Windows 7. In addition to handling touch interfaces better than Vista, Win 7 also holds some other interest for Sony. They're working on pushing their PlayStation Network further into the PC market, and Windows 7 is where it's likely to start. PSN won't be focused on games as much as on TV or movies.

Sony also addressed the coming Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) notebooks. They said that CULVs will likely change how they do ultraportable computers, and that they expect prices to drop on VAIOs across the board. This includes the VAIO TT.

A line of touchscreen VAIO CULVs would certainly be something to see. I don't know if Sony has one in development yet, or if the touch PC's they've got coming out are all normal laptops. We'll know for sure in a couple of months, but my guess is they're saving CULVs for next year. Still, the more mainstream manufacturers making touch responsive machines the better.