All over the web, I read that Ribbons are touch screen friendly, that they are made for touch etc. But I never got a real explanation why the Ribbon is as touch friendly as people say.
The icons are a bit bigger, it contextualizes information in a better way (some say), and it has better spacing between the icons. However it still contains hover-states, focus-states and so on. States are not considered touch friendly. There is no such thing as hover or focus states on touch screens (until the technology comes, if it does).
Test this out on your non-touch screen: Try to differ the hover state from the focus state in Office, when you enable/disable a tool, while still holding your cursor over the same command.
Even in the more touch friendly Windows 8, Microsoft are embedding the ribbon deeper into the operating system, now to Windows Explorer. Here also, Microsoft tells us how much better it is for the touchscreen.
So how is Ribbons touch friendly?