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Former Apple Employee Thinks Touch Bar Shouldn't Be Forced on Users Who Want Highest-End MacBook Pro

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Chuq Von Rospach, a writer and former Apple employee, has penned a blog post in which he opines that customers shouldn't be forced to pay extra for the Touch Bar in order to have the highest-end MacBook Pro currently available.

touch-bar-mbp-800x451.jpg
The current [MacBook Pro] line forces users to pay for the Touch Bar on the higher end devices whether they want it or not, and that's a cost users shouldn't need to pay for a niche technology without a future. So Apple needs to either roll the Touch Bar out to the entire line and convince us we want it, or roll it back and offer more laptop options without it.
Click to expand...
In other words, Rospach believes Apple should sell a 15-inch MacBook Pro configuration without a Touch Bar, and he isn't the only one with that opinion. A quick check of Twitter reveals dozens of users who believe the Touch Bar is a gimmick.

After purchasing a new 5K iMac and migrating away from his late 2016 MacBook Pro, Rospach said he didn't miss the Touch Bar at all and missed the Touch ID fingerprint sensor only "a little bit," but "a lot less" than he expected to.
Much as I love the Touch ID sensor, what keeps me from missing it much is 1Password. It's marginally more work for me to type in my password to open 1Password than use my fingerprint, but not much. My Apple Watch unlocks the Mac, and so I don't need the Touch ID sensor for that, and when I use Apple Pay on the iMac, the Watch makes that quite painless, too.
Click to expand...
Rospach thinks Apple needs to either expand Touch Bar and Touch ID to its entire Mac lineup with a new standalone keyboard, which would be compatible with iMac, Mac Pro, and Mac mini desktops, or expand its notebook lineup to include more models without the Touch Bar going forward.
So what's the future of the Touch Bar? I don't know. I'm not sure Apple does, either. I was fascinated that when Apple released the iMacs earlier this year not one word was mentioned about the Touch Bar or Touch ID and support for them via an updated keyboard or trackpad was nowhere to be found. I'm taking that as an indication that after the lackluster response to this with the laptop releases, they've gone back to the drawing board a bit before rolling it out further.
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Beyond old models, the lowest-end 13-inch model is currently the only MacBook Pro with a standard row of function keys. It starts at $1,299.

Via: The Loop and Techmeme

Article Link: Former Apple Employee Thinks Touch Bar Shouldn't Be Forced on Users Who Want Highest-End MacBook Pro
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/08/28/15-inch-macbook-pro-no-touch-bar-wish/
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MacRumors said:



Chuq Von Rospach, a writer and former Apple employee, has penned a blog post in which he opines that customers shouldn't be forced to pay extra for the Touch Bar in order to have the highest-end MacBook Pro currently available.

touch-bar-mbp-800x451.jpg
In other words, Rospach believes Apple should sell a 15-inch MacBook Pro configuration without a Touch Bar, and he isn't the only one with that opinion. A quick check of Twitter reveals dozens of users who believe the Touch Bar is a gimmick.

After purchasing a new 5K iMac and migrating away from his late 2016 MacBook Pro, Rospach said he didn't miss the Touch Bar at all and missed the Touch ID fingerprint sensor only "a little bit," but "a lot less" than he expected to.Rospach thinks Apple needs to either expand Touch Bar and Touch ID to its entire Mac lineup with a new standalone keyboard, which would be compatible with iMac, Mac Pro, and Mac mini desktops, or expand its notebook lineup to include more models without the Touch Bar going forward.Beyond old models, the lowest-end 13-inch model is currently the only MacBook Pro with a standard row of function keys. It starts at $1,299.

Via: The Loop and Techmeme

Article Link: Former Apple Employee Thinks Touch Bar Shouldn't Be Forced on Users Who Want Highest-End MacBook Pro
Click to expand...
I do not like the touch bar on my MBP15 and I dislike touch screens on laptops. Maybe I am just old.
 
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I know I'm probably in the minority here, but I love it every time I try the touchbar at an Apple store.

It's a bit useless in Safari, but the quick access to shortcuts in Word and Excel are awesome. I'm no expert in photo or video editing, but I bet having quick access to shortcuts and commonly used tools in the touchbar is great too.

And TouchID to unlock is the cherry on top.

The only downside I can see is not having a physical escape key, which is important to some text-based editors.
 
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MacRumors said:
Beyond old models, the lowest-end 13-inch model is currently the only MacBook Pro with a standard row of function keys. It starts at $1,299
Click to expand...
Incorrect. 13" non TocuhBar has been discontinued and now there is only a 15" MacBook Pro Mid 2015 without the touch bar from $1999
 
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WilliamG said:
Rospach is opining that his Apple Watch does some of those things literally counterpoints his argument.

“You shouldn’t be forced to buy an Apple Watch!”
Click to expand...
I wonder how much the touchbar adds to the total price, and if it's a large enough difference, why they don't simply just sell a non-touch top-end Macbook with an argueably-more useful Watch as a bundle.
 
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I don't hate it, but I sure don't love it and could definitely and would prefer to live without it. It only adds to my frustration that I bought the maxed-out 2016 in December and then the "new and improved" one appeared six months later. Such is life, I know. Kicking myself for being so stupid to jump on it right at the outset. At least I admit my own mistakes? ha

A choice between the two would be nice when CTO, but I suppose that would only kill their *revolutionary* idea off faster than it will go otherwise. Oh well, back to work, emoji face staring at me from the keyboard.
 
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The touch bar would be way better if it had haptic feedback. They already know how to do this well with the new home button on the iPhone 7 and trackpads on the Mac. In most cases, the bar is used for context button, so why not make it *feel* like a button?
 
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Maybe they just havent found a secure enough way yet, to use touchID over USB/wireless keyboard. And there are battery concerns for the wireless version too.
 
I like the touch bar. Worst case, Apple could just put the physical function row back and put the Touch Bar above that (trackpad would have to shrink slightly on the 13" though). But I agree it's a feature that should be available across the Mac line. Makes no sense for the iMac (their current desktop "pro mac" in a sense) to lack the feature at this point.
 
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