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Phil Schiller Says Apple Tested and Rejected Touch Screen Macs, Finding It 'Absurd' on a Desktop
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Yes, I guess there are advertisements. Oh, and could they rip off Apple's look-and-feel in the construction of that video some more?!? I half-expected to hear Jony Ive doing the voiceover!
BTW, you will note that in EVERY SINGLE SHOT of the Surface Studio, the actors are VERY CAREFUL to SUSPEND THEIR ARMS AND HANDS IN THE AIR.
And there is a VAST DIFFERENCE between having to do that for a 10-second video shot, and ALL DAY LONG in an office, don't you think?
Of course not.
Interesting review from Engadget on the new MB Pros. https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/14/macbook-pro-review-2016/
Tagline sums it all up - "Touch ID and a thinner design are nice, but give me back my ports."
Engadget are not known to be anti Apple so their commentary and criticism should be seen as objective.
The more Phil Schiller opens his mouth the more desperate he sounds! Apple should get another spokesperson who isn't tainted by the whole donglegate fiasco.
Tagline sums it all up - "Touch ID and a thinner design are nice, but give me back my ports."
Engadget are not known to be anti Apple so their commentary and criticism should be seen as objective.
The more Phil Schiller opens his mouth the more desperate he sounds! Apple should get another spokesperson who isn't tainted by the whole donglegate fiasco.
Or they could just do what MS did, and just put a Mac mini underneath a display on "nice", pinch-my-fingers arms. Yeah, that's innovation alright...Why would someone need to come up with this argument? It can simply be about choice. The inclusion of touch, be it a complete screen or a simple touch bar, doesn't make it a mandatory input option. There are tons of touchscreen laptops available today. Those who own them aren't required to use touch. Conversely, the touch fans aren't required to use keyboard and mouse input. It's not a question of one being better than the other.
Schiller's reasoning is myopic and shortsighted. I think he purposely crafted his half assed examples to bolster his narrative. The MS Studio shows one way it can be done on a desktop. Admittedly, if Apple went in that direction they would have to make the iMac actually thin, you know, instead of thin edged.
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They are? Outside of one MS fanboi here at work, who has a SP4, and the news-sets you see on TV with Surface Pros sprinkled about by MS' marketing and product-placement departments, I don't know a single person who is even INTERESTED in one, let alone HAS one.
Notice he didn't say anything about a "pencil" interface. Doesn't Apple know that creatives love Apple? Doesn't Apple also know that many creatives have to use Wacom to make their job easier? The surface is expensive but not so much when you factor in how much a Wacom Cintiq is. Would be great if Apple could leverage its "pencil"creation to have an all-in-one solution for professional creatives who otherwise would give that money away to Wacom.
If only they would find 5400 RPM Hard Drives absurd. Apple is so fast to ditch legacy tech, but for some reason they just love these ancient, slow hard drives. Do they actually think waiting 5 minutes for a 2016 iMac to turn on is a good customer experience? They should have switched to pure SSD 5 years ago.
Ask the developer to support touchscreens in their app then. That argument is as absurd as complaining that an app not aware of the touch bar, doesn't support the touch bar properly.
Forgive me but I'm not actually sure what you're trying to convey. Innovation?
It's more innovation than Apple are doing.
Apple are churning out the same old crap and charging more for less functionality.
Yep, Apple needs some sort of excuse for being left behind in the touch-screen convergence.
So, Schiller's argument will do for the purpose.
But it's kind of like arguing that portable computers will never take off, because Apple tested portability with a Mac SE and consumers were just not receptive to carrying it around....
So, Schiller's argument will do for the purpose.
But it's kind of like arguing that portable computers will never take off, because Apple tested portability with a Mac SE and consumers were just not receptive to carrying it around....
Thanks for sharing this and he's right to a large extent (at that time). However what's fascinating to me is how we are now beginning to use devices in different ways depending on the use case we are working with. Sometimes we want to be able to type at a keyboard and use a mouse as it's easiest when you are writing a document or doing emails. Sometimes you want to be able to use a stylus and write notes or draw a flow chart for a process. Sometimes you want to use a touchscreen to play a game or simply surf the web on a tablet type device. We are so close to getting all of that out of one device and yet Apple seems to be determined that its never going to happen for them. They have intentionally hobbled iOS devices with no file system so you can't easily store files locally, can't use a mouse as an input device and windows are not set up to be configurable. Mac OS doesn't have any touch screen capability so it can never compete in this space.
The tech world is littered with companies that got leap frogged by technology because they didn't adapt fast enough. The more I see what is happening with Apple the more this is happening to them. They are focused on trying to retain control over iOS and Mac OS devices when the market is moving around them.
I was sitting on a plane last week and a guy across the aisle was using a laptop. When we came into land he just flipped the keyboard behind and started interacting with the device as a tablet so that he didn't have to turn it off. That is the future of the laptop / large tablet space.
he is right, Schiller is a marketing head not a visionary.
Apple just slap a touch screen on your iMacs and MacBooks !!!
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Artists have been choosing to use Wacom Cintiqs for at least a decade (with their Macs) and now can have the new MS Surface Studio. But here's a tiny little strip that's touch sensitive on your MacBook Pro placed in the worst spot imaginable (above the keys rather than below). More proof that Apple is falling way behind in Pro hardware for creatives. Stop doing blow with Iovine and get back to making insanely great products!!!
Stop doing blow with Iovine and get back to making insanely great products!!!
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Schiller is so full of crap he needs to go sit on a dunny for an entire month. Think of the entire platform? Is that why the iPhone can't even plug into the the newest Macbook Pro? Is that why the Mac Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac range haven't been updated? Is that why they brought the latest Macbook Pro's out with one of the colors having been DISCONTINUED on the iPhone, and the Airpods are being brought out in a color the iPhone doesn't come in either? Or that they released only the Macbook Pro with a touchbar. Entire platform, what total BS. Apple is more fragmented than ever before.
And using the strawman argument that touch isn't suited to a 27" screen (which has been proven wrong) when the focus is on laptops only shows just how desperate he is to justify himself. Maybe if Apple stopped making so many excuses, they could get on with the job of producing nice products again.
Glad you make the most of what you use. But you seriously don't see the duplo-block sized nature of Windows 10? On a notebook it cannot even fit the five settings categories on one screen. Why would you want to fit less on a screen because it had to be upscaled to accommodate "touchscreen" UI? Why would you want that when a notebook already has a keyboard and a HUUUUUGE force sensitive multi-touch surface? I am trying hard to see the other side of this.
Yes, no one wans that. If the display is detachable, macOS switches to an iOS GUI. One device. No crapping sync or online connection needed. Finished my document? Detach the display and read over. Finished a Photo? Made some nice drawings with a pencil. Everywhere. Again. One device, no sync needed. My files belongs to me.
that's what they were saying of nokia, blackberry, motorola etc.
today apple is a phone company. they just sell phones, tablets and subscriptions.
everything else is an afterthought like the abandoned mac line and the new MacBook and Macbook 'pro' fiasco !
With where the touchbar is, you might as well be reaching for the screen. It makes no sense at all. The right location for this would have been directly above the trackpad, or even to incorporate it into the trackpad itself (kind of like having an iPhone style touchscreen trackpad). That would have been awesome, if implemented the right way.
Yep. used it before, but its not meant for that type of work. its very laggy when it comes to sending that type of data.
I think Apple's executive team made the right choice to not merge touch screen with the desktop. One of the reasons I moved away from Windows ever since they introduced the craptastic Metro UI is the fact that 1) it looks ugly 2) It doesn't work exceptionally well for touch and it doesn't work exceptionally well for the keyboard and mouse. It's a hybrid child that is malformed and poorly thought out.
My friends show me at school how they can touch the screen and interact with the icons, but all I see are the smudges across the screen.
I don't like the screen being touched. The screen has 1 purpose and that is to display your data and media to you. Using touch will 1) Cover the usable area 2) Create smudges over the screen 3) Require the UI to be completely redesigned, effectively turning the screen into a 27" iPad.
People use macbook line up because they want more power and precision. They like that tactile keyboard and precision of a pointing device and not sacrifice the touch experience. How can you have all 3? Simple. A mouse, a keyboard, a trackpad. Get it?
And now with the touch bar, it enhances the touch functionality further. Future generations of the track pad can allow even more gestures thanks to the taptic engine and larger usable space.
For the few who are rich and can afford gigantic mansions, I guess microsoft's approach would work. Those lucky folks have large desks that can tilt their 27+ inch monitors to suit their angle and needs. For the less fortunate like myself, every inch of desk space counts. The last thing I want is for my monitor to span half the desk space I have so I can "touch it". Phil is right in that it is absurd when you stop to think about it. I want a mac that uses as little desk space, gives the larges viewing angle possible and not sacrifice touch, tactile experience of the keyboard or the precision of the mouse. This is as good as it gets!
I think they really did put a lot of thought into this and it is why I am still a big fan of the Mac OS today. God forbid they move into the same direction as Microsoft. This experience is what makes the Mac great.
My friends show me at school how they can touch the screen and interact with the icons, but all I see are the smudges across the screen.
I don't like the screen being touched. The screen has 1 purpose and that is to display your data and media to you. Using touch will 1) Cover the usable area 2) Create smudges over the screen 3) Require the UI to be completely redesigned, effectively turning the screen into a 27" iPad.
People use macbook line up because they want more power and precision. They like that tactile keyboard and precision of a pointing device and not sacrifice the touch experience. How can you have all 3? Simple. A mouse, a keyboard, a trackpad. Get it?
And now with the touch bar, it enhances the touch functionality further. Future generations of the track pad can allow even more gestures thanks to the taptic engine and larger usable space.
For the few who are rich and can afford gigantic mansions, I guess microsoft's approach would work. Those lucky folks have large desks that can tilt their 27+ inch monitors to suit their angle and needs. For the less fortunate like myself, every inch of desk space counts. The last thing I want is for my monitor to span half the desk space I have so I can "touch it". Phil is right in that it is absurd when you stop to think about it. I want a mac that uses as little desk space, gives the larges viewing angle possible and not sacrifice touch, tactile experience of the keyboard or the precision of the mouse. This is as good as it gets!
I think they really did put a lot of thought into this and it is why I am still a big fan of the Mac OS today. God forbid they move into the same direction as Microsoft. This experience is what makes the Mac great.
That was six years ago and even then, Steve said they have been testing them out for years. The only new argument Phil brought today, is that a new input method like touchscreen should also work on desktop Macs including the 27" iMac. Which is the biggest hint so far that Apple is indeed working on a new Magic Keyboard with Touch Bar and TouchID.