Every big Apple innovation on the MacBook Pro line has been preceded or followed with a standalone version.
-The unibody keyboard - Followed up by similarly designed USB Apple Keyboards less than a year later
-The unibody trackpad - Followed up by the Magic Trackpad 18 months later
-The 2016+ MBP trackpad - Was preceded by the Magic Trackpad 2 in 2015
-Retina displays - Preceded by the Thunderbolt Display in 2011.
History would suggest that we should have standalone touchbars and butterfly USB keyboards by now. Yet we don't. To me this tells me 2 things:
1. Apple sees the touchbar & butterfly keyboards as failures
2. Apple likely will not continue with the touchbar & butterfly keyboard in future versions.
-The unibody keyboard - Followed up by similarly designed USB Apple Keyboards less than a year later
-The unibody trackpad - Followed up by the Magic Trackpad 18 months later
-The 2016+ MBP trackpad - Was preceded by the Magic Trackpad 2 in 2015
-Retina displays - Preceded by the Thunderbolt Display in 2011.
History would suggest that we should have standalone touchbars and butterfly USB keyboards by now. Yet we don't. To me this tells me 2 things:
1. Apple sees the touchbar & butterfly keyboards as failures
2. Apple likely will not continue with the touchbar & butterfly keyboard in future versions.