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Apple added touchpad support to the iPad for a reason. Vertical touchscreens are uncomfortable when used for longer periods of time. Since I started using Magic Keyboards and Logitech Combo keyboards, I find myself using the touchscreen on my iPads a lot less.
Which is great and gives you the choice between which one makes sense in the moment. Having keyboard/mouse lets it be used at a desk for an extended period of time while allowing you to reach up to use the touch screen when a specific, short, tasks needs or benefits from it. Yet the touch screen and tablet nature means the user can setup away from the desk to use the system elsewhere as a tablet, even the most portable tablet is still chained to having a stable platform.
 
The only way a touchscreen will work (at least for me) is if the Macbook will be able to fold like Window's 3-in-1 laptops (ie., traditional, a presentation view, and tablet mode). That being said, touch will inevitably make its way to a Mac and Apple will find a way to spin it off into a great user experience. Touch has become an essential interaction, and we should start to embrace it.
Logitech Combo Touch keyboard folio is one good method to implement an iPad/MacBook solution.
 
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I absolutely hate my touchscreen windows computer. The functionality is useless. I imagine there will be actual function and useful parts of it if Apple eventually does it, one would hope.
 
I’d rather they implemented Apple Pencil support for the trackpads with Hover functionality. They have pretty huge trackpads, and now that they support hovering on the latest iPads, I just think it makes sense…
 
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I feel like the better move is to make the iPad the one that runs both Mac OS and iPad OS. The iPad, specifically the pro, seems to be where Apple is struggling (not that I don’t love my iPad Pro). If Apple is really thinking about making MacOS touch. Why not just make it run on the iPad. And have that be your all in one.
 
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I don't understand people wanting touch screens on laptops...
Very awkward to interact that way with a display, and you leave all sorts of grime on the screen.
Also I don't think any desktop operative system (especially macOS) as a good touchscreen design.
I hope this will just be an extra feature I won't take advantage of and not an excuse to make macOS more like ipadOS.
Also the touchscreen will probably make the displays more expensive...OF COURSE...
 
If I had to guess, the reason that a lot of PC’s offer touchscreen laptops is that they have had crap trackpad multi-touch capabilities, and mouse interaction already requires that you move your hand and arm away from the keyboard, so it makes more sense to then just touch the screen. At work I have to use a Surface laptop, though I also have my iPad Pro 12.9” w/Magic Keyboard, and every colleague I work with exclusively uses a mouse and will touch their screens if they carry their laptop into a meeting and they don’t bring the mouse. I’m the ONLY person (out of 60 employees) that refuses to use a mouse and I suffer through using the terrible trackpad on the Surface.

But on my iPad Pro, I’ll use the trackpad exclusively unless I’m carrying the iPad sans keyboard case, in which case the screen input is of course what I use.

Apple adding touch to traditional laptops does not make sense or add anything positive to the UX of a laptop. People may ”feel” like it’s the natural thing to do (thanks to Apple‘s own iPhone touch interface), but touching the vertical screen of a laptop makes no good sense, as the efficient and productive natural input is with your hands on the keyboard and trackpad as they lay flat on the horizontal plane in front of you.
 
Why is everyone complaining? It's not like they're going to take away the trackpad. Just don't use the touch screen if you don't want to.

It is just like the touch bar : you don't use it but you still pay for it. Don't you expect the Macbook Pros with touchscreen to be more expensive than the current generation of Macbook pro ?
 
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I’ve never understood saying vertical touchscreens are uncomfortable when Apple themselves sell multiple keyboard attachments that all make the iPad vertical. There was even on at the introduction of the iPad in 2010.

It’s been said that people don’t want to use touchscreen Macs because then we’d have our hands in the air all the time... that’s the point though, use which input makes sense in the moment.

Besides that, look at restaurants, they’ve been using vertical touch screens for their point of sale systems all the way back to the garbage resistive touch panels.
This actually proves the point.

Touch screens are not as useful as a keyboard/mouse.

Apple created a fully touch device (iPad) - but some time later added the ability to use a keyboard/mouse, because touch input alone is not sufficient.

In contrast, a computer is fully usable without a touch screen.
 
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The first MacBook Pro with a touchscreen would retain a traditional laptop design with a trackpad and a keyboard, but the display would gain support for touch input like an iPhone or iPad.
The UltimateSyn Guarantee: they will absolutely NEVER just slap touchscreen support onto the traditional laptop form-factor. That would be asinine, and they know that. Hence why they haven’t done that in the last decade when they very well could have.
 
I never really got into the touch screen space, but it would be really interesting to see how apple adds this gimmick.

I know a TON of Windows users who refuse to go Mac because of the lack of Touch Screens. Really excited to see how apple adds this. (Was thinking about this topic today actually)
 


Despite years of resistance, Apple is now working on adding touchscreens to Macs, according to a report today from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The report claims that a new MacBook Pro with an OLED display could be the first touchscreen Mac in 2025.

14-vs-16-inch-mbp-feature.jpg

Gurman said Apple engineers are "actively engaged in the project," indicating that the company is "seriously considering" producing touchscreen Macs. The first MacBook Pro with a touchscreen would retain a traditional laptop design with a trackpad and a keyboard, but the display would gain support for touch input like an iPhone or iPad.

The first touchscreen Macs are likely to use macOS, as Apple is not actively working to combine iPadOS and macOS, according to the report. iPhone and iPad apps are available on Macs with Apple silicon chips, though, unless a developer opts out.

Apple has repeatedly dismissed the idea of a touchscreen Mac over the years, so this would be a major reversal in philosophy for the company if it moves forward with these plans. In 2010, for example, Steve Jobs said that "touch surfaces don't want to be vertical" due to arm fatigue associated with holding up a finger to the screen. And in 2021, Apple's hardware engineering chief John Ternus said the Mac was "totally optimized for indirect input" and said the company did not feel there was a good reason to change that at the time.

Article Link: Apple Reportedly Working on Touchscreen Macs, Including MacBook Pro
Steve Jobs and Apple have been absolutely right to date, why mess it up now? A lap top is not designed for touch screen it's not natural and u have a screen full of greasy finger marks 😡
 
Perhaps you are thinking of telepathy rather than a touch screen?!
Nope, I’m referring to the fact laptops can only be used when they’re on a platform. You have to go to where it is. Tablet/touchscreen hardware can be taken with you.
This actually proves the point.

Touch screens are not as useful as a keyboard/mouse.

Apple created a fully touch device (iPad) - but some time later added the ability to use a keyboard/mouse, because touch input alone is not sufficient.

In contrast, a computer is fully usable without a touch screen.
Yes macOS is far more capable than iPadOS however when an artist needs to draw with a pen/pencil or some task is easier with touch screen we absolutely cannot do either with the Mac at this time. In my opinion macOS loses far more not having touch than iPadOS gains from getting mouse support, but again that’s just my opinion.

Windows, Linux, iOS etc all can be used with and without touch and pen/pencil is a bonus. Right now macOS is the sole platform that lacks touch and pen/pencil support. Wacom tablets are a 3rd party addon and don’t count.
 
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If this comes to pass it smells of desperation and a lack of ideas. I have had touch laptops before and I never use the touch feature except in rare situations.
Desperation? It won't smell of "listening to user request"? Just because you don't use the touch screen doesn't mean a lot of people haven't been asking for this. As an iPad user, how many times have I forgotten and tried to touch a button on my MBP screen? I've seen other people do that too.
 
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Apple has nailed Stage Manager on iPadOS - so why not?

Kidding aside - If this means slapping some form of MacOS onto an iPad Pro to make for a better experience - do it!
 
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