Apple May Develop a Touchscreen Macbook Pro: Touchscreens on MacBooks may be on the way, despite Apple’s years of denying and hating the idea.
Bloomberg claims that Apple is working on a desktop computer without a touchscreen, marking a departure from the company’s typical design philosophy.
According to Bloomberg, Apple may release MacBooks with touchscreens by 2025 as part of a refreshed line of MacBook Pros. It’s possible that the 14-inch and 16-inch Pro versions may have OLED screens instead of LCD ones as part of this portfolio refresh.
Another Bloomberg story from earlier this week suggested that Apple planned to manufacture its own iPhone and Apple Watch displays in-house. But there was silence on whether or if the corporation also manufactures screens for its Mac computers.
Apple officials have said for a long time that touchscreens are unnecessary for MacBooks. Instead, for a number of years now, they have suggested that anyone interested in a big touchscreen computer try out an iPad.
As for touchscreens, the closest Apple has come to implementing them on a Mac was with the TouchBar keyboard accessory for MacBook Pros, which is now being phased out.
Apple has consistently promoted the iPad as the premier tablet “computer” available. The introduction of touchscreen MacBooks may require the corporation to gradually shift away from that narrative. Meanwhile, Apple’s rivals have developed a wide variety of touchscreen computers to compete with Apple’s iPad and MacBook.
Touchscreen computers have been controversial since Apple co-founder Steve Jobs notably criticized them as “ergonomically terrible” in 2010.
“We’ve done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn’t work. Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical. It gives a great demo, but after a short period, you start to fatigue, and after an extended period, your arm wants to fall off. It doesn’t work; it’s ergonomically terrible,” This is what he stated, at the time.
But technology has progressed and Apple has produced products like the Apple Pencil, another notion for a device that Jobs despised.
The senior vice president of Apple, Craig Federighi, has lately stated that he is “not into touchscreens” and compared touchscreen PCs to “experiments.”
If Apple goes through with this idea, it might be beneficial for the performance of iOS apps on MacBooks. Project Catalyst was initially released in 2020 with the intention of porting iOS programs to personal computers.
The makers of the iPhone are walking a fine, thorny line here. On the one hand, it has made its iPads more potent in recent years, providing them desktop-class CPUs, good add-on keyboards, and a lot of desktop features to the iPadOS.
Apple will have to maintain sufficient diversity between the iPad and the MacBook series in order to successfully market both products.