Hewlett-Packard is expected to release a consumer-oriented notebook with a touchscreen interface later this year.

Although the Apple iPhone has been rather successful with its touchscreen design, many other manufactures have yet to develop their own strong markets that use touchscreen technology. According to the WSJ, Hewlett-Packard will increase its focus on the touchscreen market this year in hopes of increasing its notebook sales. It is reported that by the end of the year, HP will unveil a new consumer notebook that will feature a touchscreen and special HP software that will support the touchscreen.

Although there are already HP touchscreen notebooks, such as the HP Pavilion tx1000 tablet PC, the new notebooks will be marketed much more strongly than the existing Tablet PCs. It would also seem that HP is developing its own touch interface for these new touchscreen notebooks, attempting to hide the Windows operating system that it will run on. The innovation firm Frog Design has been hired by HP to help with the project and the collaboration has already lead to the development of HP’s TouchSmart desktop.

The TouchSmart desktop has been available for some time in HP desktop PCs that feature touchscreens and a revamped version of it may be what will be included with the new touchscreen notebooks. The multi-touch interface of the TouchSmart desktop allows users to move items around, search through music albums, surf the web, resize photos and do other simple tasks.

With an expected strong marketing campaign and a well designed touchscreen interface, HP may actually do rather well with its new touchscreen devices. Apple has already successfully broken the ice in the ’touch’ market, such as with its multi-touch Macbooks and its touchscreen iPhones, possibly helping HP with its endeavor. Consumers may not be quite so scared to give HP’s upcoming touchscreen devices a try if they already feel familiar with touchscreens. We will likely hear quite a bit more about HP’s touchscreen devices at CES in January.

Also mentioned by the WSJ is the rumor that HP will be releasing a 10-inch netbook later this year. Although the netbook will not have a touchscreen, it will help HP capitalize on the the growing netbook market phenomenon. HP is also planning to release a consumer line of cellphones in the next year, which will feature touchscreens.