I don't know who will ever buy this Micsig touch oscilloscope. It is not a cheap scope for beginners.
Since no pricing has been announced yet, AFAIK, how did you arrive at this conclusion?
Professionals will buy a scope with proper front panel.
And who is to say a touch screen is not a "proper" front panel (control surface)? You? Based on what experience?
A rotary encoder is much better than a touch screen,
That's one opinion. And it might even be correct.
But I'd want to actually see and try the alternative, before passing judgement.
...especially for a big, expensive scope not designed for holding in your hand.
I missed any claim by Micsig that these were designed to be hand-held.
Where did you see that? In fact, since they already have an entire line of scopes specifically designed to be hand-held, I'd think these might be expected to be used somewhat differently.
And again, you've decided that these will be expensive scopes. I'm not sure how, other than you seem to enjoy bashing a product that has been announced, but not yet released.
To be clear, I'm just as interested as anyone else here in getting some questions answered, and seeing these in operation. But there's been no claim these are shipping yet, and it's apparent that these are pre-release announcements, intended to make folks aware of
upcoming products. That's not at all unusual, though many of use here would like to hear that they're shipping, along with prices, the minute we've discovered they exist (or will soon).
We're an impatient lot.
I'm willing to wait a bit, and see what they've come up with. It could be really slick, or it could be a miss. Tactile feedback from knobs and buttons can be very useful (we're certainly used to it), but a direct-manipulation interface where you interact directly with the on-screen objects may have some benefits as well. We won't know that until we get a chance to test it and see. The success of this will totally hinge on their UI, and how well they pull it off. It could be really great, and change the minds of some nay-sayers here. Or it could be blah, and fade out quickly.
Why not wait and see, rather than coming to (negative) conclusions before you've even seen what it is or can do? I honestly don't understand the negative backlash of all the bashing and childish mockery in this thread, which has really been over the top, IMO. The worst crime they've committed is to announce an upcoming product before it's shipping. No other scope manufacturer has ever done that?