Pen + Touch will start to take over soon

Manual Deskterity is a methodology of using both Pen and Touch together.

It’s not just about the Pen, it not just about Touch, it’s about combining them for the best natural interface.

Technology Review has a nice article about this as well.

Touch screen interfaces may be trendy in gadget design, but that doesn't mean they do everything elegantly. The finger is simply too blunt for many tasks. A new interface, called Manual Deskterity, attempts to combine the strengths of touch interaction with the precision of a pen.

When we started using the mouse, it was so clunky and hard to get used to, but now we can’t seem to get away from it.

To date the pen on a Palm, TabletPC or Wacom Cintiq has been so horrid that people reject it for good reason, the Interface is crap.  It’s not the same comfort as jotting a note or drawing on paper.

Hinckley also thinks it's a mistake to focus on devices that work with touch input alone. He says, "The question is not, 'How do I design for touch?' or 'How do I design for pen?' We should be asking, 'What is the correct division of labor in the interface for pen and touch interactions such that they complement one another?'"

The researchers plan to follow up by adapting their interface to work on mobile devices.

The above video shows this running on a Microsoft Surface.  These devices are just too damned expensive to ever be mainstream.  However, we are starting to see real and usable Multitouch Monitors that can surely be Pen Enabled soon.  The price point is now under $750 which is much more reasonable and as MultiTouch pervades the designs in the future, even more will appear and the price will drop.

Using this scenario on a Slate type device makes even more sense.  Courier looks promising where this interface will be used to great effect, but I believe the Slate is most likely the better form factor than a foldable display.

People will always object to any new technology until it how to use it starts making sense and software gets out of your way.

UI Design has come a long way from this: