Kuo: OLED MacBook Pro to Feature Touch Screen Display

[svish]

Will be interesting to see whether there will be changes to macOS due to this. Hopefully Apple will not increase price because of this. Not expecting touch display on the upcoming entry level MacBook to happen. If at all it is ever going to get it, think the Air should definitely get it before.

 

[neo_cs193p]

For those who ask “who really wants this?”
I say it’s not necessarily about people wanting this, more about people expecting this.
Can’t tell you how many times I’ve handed my MacBook over to a family member or friend, and what is the first thing that they do? Instinctually reach for the screen to start touching it, and then are confused when absolutely nothing happens.
Almost every mainstream mobile product has a touchscreen, in a way that wasn’t the case back when Steve Jobs made that quote in 2010.

Yes, the Mac is currently one of the very few islands of sanity in a sea of "let's build everything in just because it's possible".
IMHO, people who expect a touch screen on a Mac can continue to try to touch the non-touch display, get surprised, and then freely ponder whether there was some actual deep thought going into the design process and the non-touch is very much intentional / better.

 

[neo_cs193p]

As long as this remains an option, just like nano texture, everyone will be happy.

An option? You mean like having 2 different sets of UI (touch and non-touch) for macOS and apps?

Highly unlikely.
If they go the touchscreen route, they will just make interface elements bigger (which they are already starting to do with the menu bar and some other places), which means my display will need to be bigger to accommodate the same amount of information, which in turn means that my laptop will need to be bigger than otherwise necessary, which positively sucks.

 

[The Game 161]

And people don’t have to use touch either if they don’t want to. Option being there isn’t a bad thing

 

[bluecoast]

Surely apple’s intention will be that we’ll be able to detach the screen and use it

I had used a Chromebook for a while for work with a touch screen and never used it in its clamshell form.

Mind you, I never used it folded up either as it was like holding a hard backed encyclopaedia.

 

[Anaxarxes]

I agree. Maybe my phrasing was ambiguous. When I said I don't care about touching my screen, I actually ment: I don't want to touch my screen. The Mac is the one device I use the most, sometimes all day long, to get real work done. It is currently the one device with clean display(s) - often connected to external non-touch displays, also clean - and I would like to keep it that way in the future.

Precisely my idea as well.

But with theis new iPadOS and windos resizing and all, I think Apple is fine tuning a new UX or even a new OS.

I would love an OS that can morph inbetween macOS and iPadOS based on how I use the device.

A MacBook with a detachable iPad screen that has all the internals and battery, where the keyboard, mouse and a larger battery is housed would be a great idea.

You detach and the performance envelope drops to an iPad level, you attach and you get a little more performance and a battery that last a full day.

Alternatively you can have an iPad with M4, you connect mouse, keyboard and a screen, it transforms to macOS.

 

[Digitalguy]

An option? You mean like having 2 different sets of UI (touch and non-touch) for macOS and apps?

Highly unlikely.
If they go the touchscreen route, they will just make interface elements bigger (which they are already starting to do with the menu bar and some other places), which means my display will need to be bigger to accommodate the same amount of information, which in turn means that my laptop will need to be bigger than otherwise necessary, which positively sucks.

Totally disagree. If Apple introduces touch, it won't be on every Mac and they will make sure to make a separate UI which you can ignore, just like you can ignore Stage Manager for instance, or even the new windowing system on iPad.

 

[Selena Agna]

Totally disagree. If Apple introduces touch, it won't be on every Mac and they will make sure to make a separate UI which you can ignore, just like you can ignore Stage Manager for instance, or even the new windowing system on iPad.

Do you mean, like, when you turn a touchscreen mode on, the OS just renders all buttons larger so they are viable targets for your finger? Increasing whitespace between individual toolbar actions? Making the menubar 3 times its size?

I could only see something like that working if every single Mac app was using SwiftUI, otherwise Apple would not have that amount of control over non-standard UI components.

 

[jchap]

Do you mean, like, when you turn a touchscreen mode on, the OS just renders all buttons larger so they are viable targets for your finger? Increasing whitespace between individual toolbar actions? Making the menubar 3 times its size?

I could only see something like that working if every single Mac app was using SwiftUI, otherwise Apple would not have that amount of control over non-standard UI components.

As I recall, Windows 8 underwent the same sort of hullabaloo with its touchscreen support. Apps that supported the Metro UI worked for touchscreen; apps that didn't support it still displayed in standard Windows desktop UI mode, despite the fact that the user was using the device in tablet mode. macOS would face the same predicament—how to display apps that support touchscreen mode, and how to deal with apps that don't.

It isn't like every app ever made is optimized for touch screens, right.

 

[Mythlin]

I would never use this. I have a Surface Laptop 7 and never use the touch screen. It's a total gimmick on laptops.

 

[Digitalguy]

Do you mean, like, when you turn a touchscreen mode on, the OS just renders all buttons larger so they are viable targets for your finger? Increasing whitespace between individual toolbar actions? Making the menubar 3 times its size?

I could only see something like that working if every single Mac app was using SwiftUI, otherwise Apple would not have that amount of control over non-standard UI components.

They don't need everything to be optimized, just like mouse and keyboard on iPad, not every apps works and it's still an Apple product... it's a bonus, touch will not be the main way to interact. It will be useful with iPad apps and in some other situations

 

[progx]

Nah. One thing Steve was sometimes good at was changing his mind as if he had thought of it himself in the first place.

He would have been glad to do a touch MacBook and been a hellish fiend on his employees for getting it “right.”

And he would have done it years ago once the market moved that way.

Yeah, the market moved that way in 2001 and he said no. He claimed that’s where the iPad came in years later, especially after touch screen PCs were still on the market. Steve would’ve likely said no to the project with the way macOS is designed.

He famously called them a failure in the marketplace, even said users would get “gorilla arm” from doing cursor based movements.

I’m all for a touchscreen Mac, but a lot of you people who like to invoke the ghost of Steve for your arguments. Remember this: he would have not changed his mind on it, at all.

 

[progx]

A MacBook iPad hybrid would hit mainstream in ways neither separate device could do. Do you know Nintendo? They used to make a separate portable and home console line. They combined both in a single line and have made more money since that, than in all their previous history. Remember the iPhone? Apple combined a portable handheld Mac, a phone, an iPod, and created the most successful device in history.

All true.

People would be crying to "not canibalize" the iPod. iPad is the new iPod.

Except the iPad outsells the Mac. In 2023, the iPad sold over 48 million vs 26 million the Mac line did. The iPad isn’t going anywhere, especially to the audience who don’t own any kind of Mac or PC. Those users far outnumber us Mac/Windows/Linux users too.

 

[rp2011]

About time. Is Craig retiring? I think the most religious anti-touch zealots have entered their retirement homes. So the coast is clear.

 

[Selena Agna]

They don't need everything to be optimized, just like mouse and keyboard on iPad, not every apps works and it's still an Apple product... it's a bonus, touch will not be the main way to interact. It will be useful with iPad apps and in some other situations

To be completely honest, that sounds like it hasn't been properly thought through.
Just adding features for the sake of simulating progress, without putting any care into the implementation.

So, it would be a perfect fit for Tim Cook Apple. 😂

 

[Digitalguy]

To be completely honest, that sounds like it hasn't been properly thought through.
Just adding features for the sake of simulating progress, without putting any care into the implementation.

So, it would be a perfect fit for Tim Cook Apple. 😂

That's the policy now, Craig said it for iPadOS, we implement the features and developers should adapt, those who don't are left behind. That's exactly what is happening on iPadOS. Is it an issue? No, you can still use those apps with touch as usual. But you cannot resize them properly or use mouse/trackpad properly.
Same could happen with MacOS. You'll be able to ignore touch completely, and everything will continue to work as before. If you want touch the experience may not be great with some third party software.
Hopefully the first party implementation will better than on Windows, where after decades the file explorer is still not touch friendly...

 

[joecomo]

The iPadPro is already close to perfection hardware wise. With the Magic Keyboard it can serve as a laptop
(and with iPadOS26 it is closer than ever) - without keyboard as a tablet.
With the OS adjusting, the remaining limitation is more in the apps - IpadOS applications are usually not made for
the trackpad.