Though I am intrigued by the iPad and am planning to go to my local Apple store to check it out, I currently don't have any devices that utilize a touch screen, so I don't have a firm opinion about touch screens in general. (Though I do find the ones at grocery stores' self-checkout stations rather annoying - sometimes you almost have to pound on the screen in order for it to register your command.
Of course, presumably a touch screen on a phone or tablet is much more sensitive - possibly
too sensitive from some of the comments I have read.)
I personally don't see the need of a touch screen on my eReader; like DiapDealer, if they come out with a touch screen version, I hope they keep the physical buttons as well. I like to read one handed with the thumb of the hand holding the Kindle operating the page turn buttons. Having to use two hands, one to hold the Kindle, the other to "swipe" the screen for page turns seems to defeat the purpose of the design, IMHO, though a touch screen might be useful for other functions of the reader. And for those of us who only have the use of one hand....
I am also not enamored by the thought of having fingerprints all over the screen; as others have mentioned, I, too, like to keep my Kindle's screen - and the screens of my computers and other electronic devices - as clean as possible. Smudgy screens aren't good for my already poor eyesight, either!
Holly