@ssong: You're definitely right that an iMac would be an even better fit for a touchscreen. And I'd be happy with a multitouch iMac, since that'd be easy enough to carry away to another studio. It also has the benefit of a much larger screen (like the 27" Slate Raven).
The Microsoft Surface Studio is what we would expect from Apple in 2016. But Apple have become massive laggards far behind the times in the computer industry, as they've focused all their attention on iPads and iPhones. Sigh, if only this ran macOS:
If the Microsoft Surface Studio in the video above was an Apple product, everyone would be completely jizzing their pants over it and screaming "holy sh-t, Apple are the greatest innovators in the world, this is truly the next level of computing!". But since it doesn't come with a picture of an Apple logo, and since Apple are being held back by their own shortsighted anti-touchscreen comments from 10 years ago, then it "must suck", right? Well, it doesn't suck. Apple are so far behind the times that it's getting more and more strenuous to remain with them.
It seriously blows my mind how far behind Apple is. Look at the Surface Studio above again. It is such a logical evolution of the desktop, and any creative professional can dream up such a device (we've been dreaming about the Surface Studio for decades). I doubt that Apple has lost their innovation and imagination. They've got a massive team of product designers. So what is taking Apple so long? Are they just waiting to let others perfect the idea before they play catch-up on the desktop as usual? Or are they perhaps trying to reinvent the whole idea and will release something mindblowing when they're ready? I hope it's the latter. Luckily, Jonathan Ive revealed that they're working on multitouch Macs. That's my last remaining hope. I'll wait to see what that is going to be.
And sure, the new touch-strip in the new MacBook "Pro" is very clever, but other than that it's not a particularly remarkable laptop. Mediocre CPUs (except for the pricy top-end choice), mediocre GPUs (even in the top model), no multitouch-screen yet, and a total lack of anything but USB-C ports (which for the next few years will mean lots of dongles). It's a bit of a nightmare. For the first time in 20 years I'm very seriously starting to think about jumping ship to Windows 10 and Steinberg Cubase as my music production setup, instead of macOS and Logic Pro X.
I'll give Apple a few more years to catch up, since I am curious what Jonathan Ive's upcoming touchscreen laptop (or iMac) will look like. After all, I love macOS. I can't unlove macOS, no matter how terrible Apple is becoming on the desktop side of things.
Worst case, a Surface Studio running Steinberg Cubase would be a fantastic music production machine, with 32 GB RAM, quad-core i7 processor, powerful GTX980M graphics card, and 10-point multitouch. I've never really liked Windows, but Windows 10 is getting slicker and slicker by the day. At this rate, there will come a time when I don't care about macOS on the desktop anymore. That would be a sad day... I love everything about macOS and the design sense that goes into all 3rd party applications. The Windows side is still an ugly mess with ugly, cluttered GUIs and lots of legacy code. But if I am only going to run Steinberg Cubase as my daily music production machine, then I don't really care about those details. A Microsoft Surface Studio is now on my list of things to keep an eye on. I do not want to leave to the Windows side (with its ugly applications and mishmash software GUI design language), but at this rate we'll see what happens... I'll try to hold on to Apple for another half-a-decade. Apple has to join the touch-revolution someday, right? Imagine them 20 years from now, still without touchscreens. That would be insanely dumb.
The Microsoft Surface Studio is what we would expect from Apple in 2016. But Apple have become massive laggards far behind the times in the computer industry, as they've focused all their attention on iPads and iPhones. Sigh, if only this ran macOS:
If the Microsoft Surface Studio in the video above was an Apple product, everyone would be completely jizzing their pants over it and screaming "holy sh-t, Apple are the greatest innovators in the world, this is truly the next level of computing!". But since it doesn't come with a picture of an Apple logo, and since Apple are being held back by their own shortsighted anti-touchscreen comments from 10 years ago, then it "must suck", right? Well, it doesn't suck. Apple are so far behind the times that it's getting more and more strenuous to remain with them.
It seriously blows my mind how far behind Apple is. Look at the Surface Studio above again. It is such a logical evolution of the desktop, and any creative professional can dream up such a device (we've been dreaming about the Surface Studio for decades). I doubt that Apple has lost their innovation and imagination. They've got a massive team of product designers. So what is taking Apple so long? Are they just waiting to let others perfect the idea before they play catch-up on the desktop as usual? Or are they perhaps trying to reinvent the whole idea and will release something mindblowing when they're ready? I hope it's the latter. Luckily, Jonathan Ive revealed that they're working on multitouch Macs. That's my last remaining hope. I'll wait to see what that is going to be.
And sure, the new touch-strip in the new MacBook "Pro" is very clever, but other than that it's not a particularly remarkable laptop. Mediocre CPUs (except for the pricy top-end choice), mediocre GPUs (even in the top model), no multitouch-screen yet, and a total lack of anything but USB-C ports (which for the next few years will mean lots of dongles). It's a bit of a nightmare. For the first time in 20 years I'm very seriously starting to think about jumping ship to Windows 10 and Steinberg Cubase as my music production setup, instead of macOS and Logic Pro X.
I'll give Apple a few more years to catch up, since I am curious what Jonathan Ive's upcoming touchscreen laptop (or iMac) will look like. After all, I love macOS. I can't unlove macOS, no matter how terrible Apple is becoming on the desktop side of things.
Worst case, a Surface Studio running Steinberg Cubase would be a fantastic music production machine, with 32 GB RAM, quad-core i7 processor, powerful GTX980M graphics card, and 10-point multitouch. I've never really liked Windows, but Windows 10 is getting slicker and slicker by the day. At this rate, there will come a time when I don't care about macOS on the desktop anymore. That would be a sad day... I love everything about macOS and the design sense that goes into all 3rd party applications. The Windows side is still an ugly mess with ugly, cluttered GUIs and lots of legacy code. But if I am only going to run Steinberg Cubase as my daily music production machine, then I don't really care about those details. A Microsoft Surface Studio is now on my list of things to keep an eye on. I do not want to leave to the Windows side (with its ugly applications and mishmash software GUI design language), but at this rate we'll see what happens... I'll try to hold on to Apple for another half-a-decade. Apple has to join the touch-revolution someday, right? Imagine them 20 years from now, still without touchscreens. That would be insanely dumb.
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I would actually prefer a touchscreen MacBook Pro, since that's truly portable. And the 15" screen is a great size for touch (again; if we lived with the 9.7" iPads for this long, laptop screen size is not going to be an issue). That being said, if Apple's first multitouch Mac screen is an iMac, I'll probably buy that on day 1 too. Those are easy enough to carry around to different music studios.