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Apple Reportedly Working on Touchscreen Macs, Including MacBook Pro

MICHAELSD said:
I think it comes down to customer demand. The average Joe customer expects a Mac to have a touchscreen.

Personally I wouldn’t mind if the Mac and iPad crossed lines to become a hybrid product, although I’m not sure we’ll see that anytime soon.
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The best hybrid implementation I've seen was Microsoft Surface Book 2015 with the Fulcrum hinge that separated the tablet display form the keyboard+battery+higher CPU and dedicated GPU. But the disconnection was electronically magnetic and had issues.

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Haha… same old complaining of naysayers until it becomes reality. Reminds me of all the hatred regarding mouse support for the iPad until Apple did it. Naysayers went silent.

I would welcome the touch screen.
 
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KPOM said:
The point is that the macOS user interface is not designed for touchscreens. There would inevitably be more UI changes.
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Windows isnt really a touch interface either. It's still clunky.

Place I worked was still using an app developed 10 years ago and font resizing and window resizing meant most of the text was hard to read and empty screen and tiny data presentation widgets that didnt resize on modern high res screens. It would be impossible to accurately use the menus in this program with a finger.
 
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Finally. This will be extremely useful for retail point-of-sale Macs.

Also, useful for the professional health-care market.
 
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lazyrighteye said:
Soooo... How would a touch-enabled MBP differ from an iPad and a Magic Keyboard Folio?
Doesn't seem that crazy a stretch, to me.
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Just because your vision is limited or roadblocked does not mean the creative Apple Engineers don’t have solutions in the works for years.

I remembered a time when rumours said Apple was working on AppleSilicon Mac hardware and OS and most were like that is crazy and the end of Apple, we need windows, dual boot, gaming, blah blah blah. Hate to inform but Apple had an x86 version of OSX during the PPC days. The M# hardware has increased sales and Apple has not gone under.
 
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seadragon said:
Haha… same old complaining of naysayers until it becomes reality. Reminds me of all the hatred regarding mouse support for the iPad until Apple did it. Naysayers went silent.

I would welcome the touch screen.
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Hatred for mouse? Huh? A few thought it broke the interface purity but added as an Accessibility item is proved its worth for some users. I tried it. Works fine but another thing to cart around.

Some people like pencils. I do. But if you are happy with a finger to do the same jobs then good too.
Some people love built in trackpads or external ones. A range of supported input methods is fine.

I dont see anyone clamouring to use a desktop touch screen.
On a laptop, maybe. Maybe.

I see very few real world laptop Windows users using a finger instead of a mouse or trackpad though. Only on ads ;)
 
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MICHAELSD said:
I think it comes down to customer demand. The average Joe customer expects a Mac to have a touchscreen.

Personally I wouldn’t mind if the Mac and iPad crossed lines to become a hybrid product, although I’m not sure we’ll see that anytime soon.
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yes, from Apple not anytime soon. But innovation does not wait for Apple anymore judging by the Lenovo hybrid shown at CES as reported by MacRumors.
 
code-m said:
With pro apps slowly being introduced on iPad Pro, it seems a merger of iPadOS and macOS is inevitable.
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Though the Bloomberg article specifically states that Apple is not planning on merging iPadOS and macOS.
 
code-m said:
Agreed that stuff ain’t free, however some of your other concerns maybe addressed in 2024/25. Thinner OLED panels on a MacBook is claimed to reduce thickness, if a touch layer in added the thickness will remain the same plus the 1080p camera requires a minimum amount of thickness. Power consumption will be minimal and hope there is a physical switch to turn the touch screen component on/off due to accidental input. Cost increase maybe marginal at best.

Over the years macOS has been adopting iPadOS UX, it’s possible this will initially be a separate addition to the laptop line, a new product with a detachable screen or a merger of devices. Imagine a 13” iPad Pro in iPadOS mode when detached and when attached to the base/dock it turns to macOS while charging and the rest. Flip the display and it decodes a touch canvas while attached to the base or not. Using the base/dock allows desktop class apps. A base M# processor in the display and a base or pro/max chip in the base/dock that works together for a more powerful system and pro workflow.

The concept and idea that the late Steve Jobs and Apple through these years was that the display was not detachable from the base. I believe many windows and android tablet/laptop manufacturers have proven its possible though unpolished through they implementation.
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The most recent example we have so far is removal of 3D Touch. It reduced cost and thickness of iPhone. And the MacBook lid is nowhere near as thick as an iPhone.
 
Seems clear to me that the idea would be to offer a choice of iPads and Macs depending on how people want to use them and have both MacOS and iPadOS on each (e.g. dual boot or iPadOS is an App like Win 3.1 and DOS back in the day). Various experiences are available at different prices

$999 - iPad Pro - great tablet experience, acceptible Mac Experience (using MacOS with Touch)
$1299 - MacBook - average tablet experience (use touch screen to run iPadOS or iPadOS/iOS apps), great Mac experience (with touch screen if you really want to use it)
$1499 - iPad Pro + MacDock - great tablet experience, great Mac experience

The MacDock would be a new version of the Magic Keyboard that is much sleeker and aestheically pleasing. This way you have devices at a variety of price points that offer various levels of suitability for different types of use. The iPad is a tablet that can use MacOS with a bit of compromise. The MacBook is a Mac that can run iPad Apps with touch input (but less portable and heavier than an iPad) and the third gives you the best of both worlds with no compromise.
 
danakin said:
Careful, you’re applying logic and sense to a crowd that’s overwhelmingly predisposed to prefer their opinion as global fact.
So many of the responses in this thread make me fear the worst if any of these posters ever manage to get out of their parents’ basement and have to contribute to society.
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Except software tends to gravitate to the lowest common denominator. Adobe Acrobat on Windows has gotten clunkier with every new release, mostly as keyboard- and mouse-based actions and UI elements are replaced with touch-enabled elements.
 
Eminemdrdre00 said:
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.
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Disadvantages to Apple implementing a laptop touch screen, if you don't use it:
  • unnecessarily increases the price of the laptop
  • unnecessarily increases the size and weight of the laptop - for the additional components and for any additional structural support required so the shell of the screen can withstand the force of repetitive touch over the laptop life
  • will take time and resources for Apple to develop (both hardware and software changes) - which could otherwise be expended on improving the laptop in other areas
  • introduces another component to your laptop which has the chance of breaking and reducing the lifespan of your laptop.

Disadvantages to using a laptop touch screen:
  • it is not a natural or an ergonomic action to touch a laptop screen:
    • The resting position of your hands is on the keyboard.
    • Touching the screen requires you to move your whole arm up and forward.
    • Then back and down, to return to the keyboard.
    • Try doing this for 8 to 12 hours per day (again, from experience on Windows laptops).
  • adjusting the screen angle with your hand can result in inadvertent clicking on the screen (from experience on Windows laptops).
 
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Give me a keyboard case that has a battery and storage. When connected to an iPad, it would run macOS, use the iPad as a display, and charge the iPad. Disconnect the iPad and you've got an iPad. A true 2-in-one.
 
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