Touchscreen

Hello,

Well, your point about Launchpad really made me think twice. Apple has been incorporating iOS features into OS X since Lion. But then again, a touchscreen in a laptop is more or less a novelty.

The rumored 13" iPad sounds more feasible. It could serve as a replacement for the 13" Air and Pro for consumers who need a bigger screen but don't need a keyboard+pointer interface.

But my guess is as good (bad) as anybody's.

Regards
Raptor

 

Unless they redesigned the pro where you can fold the screen all the way back to a tablet form and use it as a tablet like some thick iPad

 

I would bet that the Air gets a touchscreen before the MacBook Pro does. And that's IF Apple puts touchscreens on any of the laptops. Somehow I think they want to keep the strong iPad market going.

 

I am against a touchscreen on a laptop or desktop display because:

- I don't want to have to deal with fingerprints on the screen, and

- Having to raise my arms to touch a laptop or desktop screen for extended periods would be unnecessarily tiresome. I would go insane if I had to perform my current workload by touching the screen.

 

^^^

This

I don't want a 27" touchscreen at all...On IOS devices it's fine and works well, but the prospect of even using a touch based Imac or MBP isn't one I'd buy into.

 

I couldn't agree more. Tablets and touch screen devices are different than keyboard and mouse input devices. They each have their place.

 

The Cocoa API is not really compatible with a concept of touchscreens... I doubt Apple will do something like this without a major API revision. They have always been very particular about these kind of things. Not to mention that a touchscreen is a horrible idea ergonomy-wise.

 

Bear with me for a moment.

Imagine holding your arms up and flailing them around a 27'' iMac for more than 2 minutes.

Would this be ergonomic or comfortable? Heck no.

Touchscreens on computers that are used for any period of time longer than about 2 minutes are completely stupid, useless and a pain to use.

Unless you can fold the screen flat to the desk to use as a tablet, you'll use the touchscreen for all of 2-5 minutes before shrugging it off as a novelty and going back to your trusty old mouse.

 

I had a similar thought recently. The Air could be thinner, that's proven in my opinion by the size and power of the 13" rMBP. The Air could also have a retina display, again proven by the size of the rMBP and the display it powers. The Air hasn't been redesigned since 2010, so next year could see a redesign.

Earlier this year I remember someone posting on here about a possible new laptop portable line coming in 2014. Perhaps this is the 13" iPad.

A 13" iPad with the right processor and iGPU could replace the Macbook Air as Apple's main consumer portable computer. Add a more iOS style (yet still fully capable) OSX next year and a retina display and the 13" iPad/Mac could be Apple's answer to the Windows 8 touchscreen explosion.

For those that need the physical keyboard and extra power the rMBP would still be at the top of Apple's portable lineup, but a fully capable touchscreen tablet done right the Apple way could be the next big thing.

 

Apple told people how its very bad to have a touch screen on a laptop, so unless they come up with something clever, other than just a laptop with touch screen, it is most likely not going to happen.

 

I see a place for a touchscreen iMac/Macbook where the touchscreen is, clearly, an addition to the keyboard and mouse.

Some tasks would be quicker using a touchscreen. Quickly scrolling a page or placing the cursor somewhere within a load of text, moving files and folders around etc.

I like the idea of a touchscreen iMac - especially since Apple have taken the odd decision to make the screen so huge but the keyboard and mouse so uncomfortably and awkwardy tiny.

 

I would definitely love a touch screen, but not where the current laptop screen is. Instead, replace the whole lower half of the laptop with an iPad like surface.

The lower screen can be used as a keyboard like on an iPad, but if you don't need the keyboard, you'd have extra screen real estate and the keyboard would disappear like on ios. I am frequently working with applications where I'm not using he keyboard, but where it would make ergonomical sense to plot things onto the document I'm working on with a stylus onto a horizontal surface.

Imagine two powerful iPads positioned like a laptop book, where you can run all the applications of a MacOS.

Btw, why be concerned about fingerprints when we are not on an iPad?

 

Definitely not this generation with OSX Mavericks.

I think Apple would modify the UI for better touch controls if they ever plan to release a touchscreen mac

 

That would be epic, but the battery requirements for 2 retina displays on one thin laptop would be far too high.

 

Now how did you get that out of this thread? Some are just saying the "touch screen" already exists. It's called the trackpad.