Will Apple get rid of the touchbar with the arrival of ARM Macbooks?

[senttoschool]

I maintain that the main reason the touchbar was pushed down our throats is that Apple wanted to differentiate from PCs more than just the OS. Unlike on mobile, Apple could only use the same Intel CPUs that PCs also use so it can't lead in performance. So to differentiate, Apple decided to push a gimmicky feature that will wow people in stores but provides a terrible user experience and adds $100-$200 to the price.

With the arrival of ARM Macbooks, Apple should be able to differentiate in both the OS and performance (speed, battery life, thermals). In turn, I hope Apple will finally get rid of the embarrassment that is the touchbar.

 

[me55]

Why would they do that? There are people that actually like the Touch Bar.

 

[shaunp]

Why would they do that? There are people that actually like the Touch Bar.

It does need to be an option though. I personally don't see the point in the touch bar and would rather just have function keys, and from comments on here I'm not alone.

 

[Mojo1019]

Personally I like it. But It would make more sense if it was an option.

 

[maflynn]

There are people that actually like the Touch Bar.

Some people like it, many people don't. I have no idea which group is the majority. One thing that is known is that its a controversial decision.

My thinking is that the first products to roll out from Apple being ARM based will not have the touchbar simply because it will be a low end device

 

[Tekguy0]

I sure hope they do, though the butterfly keyboard needs to go first.

 

[senttoschool]

Why would they do that? There are people that actually like the Touch Bar.

I explained this in my original post.
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Some people like it, many people don't. I have no idea which group is the majority. One thing that is known is that its a controversial decision.

My thinking is that the first products to roll out from Apple being ARM based will not have the touchbar simply because it will be a low end device

If the reports are true that A14 for Mac is a 12 core SoC, then I think there's a decent chance the first laptop out the gate with ARM is the MacBook Pro.
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I sure hope they do, though the butterfly keyboard needs to go first.

The butterfly keyboard is already gone.

 

[zhaolewen]

I think whether the touch bar will go or not is a separate story from the performance, in addition, the bar actually makes sense for media editing.
sure it also makes more sense if it's an option.

 

[senttoschool]

Apple doesn't make key features optional. They either support it all the way or they will phase it out. If only some devices have it, then developers won't fully support it which will make for a suboptimal user experience.

The iMac, Macook Air, Mac Mini, and Mac Pro don't have it. You can't buy an external keyboard with it. Only the 13" Pro and 16" Pro have it. Support for the toucbar is inconsistent. This was the case with 3D touch as well. Eventually, 3D touch was phased out.

 

[sublunar]

Some people like it, many people don't. I have no idea which group is the majority. One thing that is known is that its a controversial decision.

My thinking is that the first products to roll out from Apple being ARM based will not have the touchbar simply because it will be a low end device

I'd agree with that, and there's a noticeable gap in the lineup where the 12" Macbook was. If they replace that product with an ARM powered machine that ran macOS (without touch screen, it's not an iOS product) and differentiate it by calling it an iBook - for example - they might have the beginning of the end of Intel's Core products.

I say beginning of the end - I don't see why Apple would not continue using Xeons in iMac Pro and Mac Pro for example.

 

[recoil80]

I think the TB is going to stay.
They didn't put it on the keyboard for the iPad, but it wouldn't make sense there. The MBA comes with the function keys, but I think the future Macbook with ARM processor will have a new design, and I can see a TouchBar in it.

 

[bill-p]

Roughly three years later, I've started to accustom myself to the Touch Bar and customized it a bit more to fit my needs. At this point, it's... less useless than it was a while ago.

On mine, there are buttons to switch input languages (very useful), lock computer (so I can just tap it and leave), volume control, and brightness control.

When I code, there are buttons to build, run, debug, profile, etc... which are more useful than having to press the corresponding key combinations (I still do press the key combinations when I use an external keyboard), and I find that that helps a bit with the workflow. When I'm in debug mode, the buttons switch to stop debug mode, prev breakpoint, next breakpoint, etc... and then profile gets its own layout. One single tap to do what a combination of keys does is making it pretty useful.

So the touch bar is not just for movie editing and music editing anymore.

Many of my apps still don't support the Touch Bar, though, like... say, Capture One Pro. I don't wish for them to add support any time soon, but it would be nice to have.

I think Apple needs to come out with an actual wireless keyboard that has the Touch Bar for adoption to become more widespread... and for developers to start taking advantage of the thing and make it actually useful. Right now, it's kind of a novelty with certain apps. I enjoy it for certain workflows, and I don't give a damn with certain others like... say... it's completely useless when I'm using Safari.

 

[christcc2]

The Touch Bar is definitely going to stay. They have dug in and entrenched this as a part of their hardware and Mac OS in general. I still wouldn't be surprised if it appeared on a future wireless Magic Keyboard.

 

[Codeline]

Only time I look at my touchbar is to wonder when it's going to break. I prefer keys, it's there but I wish it wasn't

 

[BF1M]

The Touch Bar is definitely going to stay.

People said that about 3D Touch. I think the fact that we haven’t seen Touch Bar move to the desktop says a lot in the same way us never seeing 3D Touch move to iPad said a lot.

 

[macnmac]

OH I WISH!

 

[DanMan619]

I think they'll keep it. One of the biggest complaints the touch bar has functionally is how much it freezes/performs. ARM would more or less instantly solve that problem if it's as efficient and powerful as it's reported (and shown in iPhones/iPads) to be. The touch bar isn't as universally hated as you think it is. It is like usual a vocal minority (or at most vocal half) that dislike it. So i wouldn't be that quick to ditch it since it has it's fans as well. I know if it was me running Apple, even with the customer base being split on the touchbar, i'd try it again on the ARM Macs to see how it could be improved with better tech under its hood. Having seen patents Apple has for glass keyboards and stuff, it seems somewhat obvious where they eventually may want this to go. I don't think touch bar is going anywhere personally.

 

[jwolf6589]

I am thinking about buying a new MacBook Pro and the Touch Bar is one of the main reasons. Why do some people hate it?? It looks like a nice feature. Or should I upgrade to the MacBook Air instead?

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Some people like it, many people don't. I have no idea which group is the majority.

I’d guess that the majority is the folks that don’t care strongly enough one way or the other so we’ll never see their posts here. If someone created a poll right now on what people think about it, I doubt the number of responses would even be 1% of the entire user base of Touch Bar MBP’s.
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I am thinking about buying a new MacBook Pro and the Touch Bar is one of the main reasons. Why do some people hate it?? It looks like a nice feature. Or should I upgrade to the MacBook Air instead?

It’s a nice feature. From the iPad Pro discussions, I’ve gathered that some that want function keys primarily want them for volume control, screen brightness controls, those kinds of things. The Touch Bar provides that in a cool way, BUT it IS different, though.

If you use function keys so much that you’ve memorized positions and you don’t look when reaching for the key, then not having the key there is likely going to bug you. However, if you look every time anyway, now when you look and touch the button, it changes to a bar which you can then drag up and down to change the volume. NEAT!

 

[bill-p]

Why do some people hate it??

Despite it being more useful now (please see my post above), I still hate the touch bar because:

1. I have to look down on the keyboard to use it. I don't like to do that.
2. Assuming I'm okay with having to look down on the keyboard to see which keys I'm hitting, it's very hard for me to see the touch bar because it's at an angle, and in an effort to save on battery life, Apple dimmed the living daylight out of it. Pun intended.
3. And that leads to #3: it sucks battery life just being there.
4. This is no longer the case with the 16" MacBook Pro, but the Esc key was gone. Tapping the Esc key is not the same as hitting an actual Esc key especially if you work with code and the terminal a lot.
5. A lot of apps still don't support it, effectively meaning either I force the function keys on only when I execute those apps and then have to switch back when I don't, or the touch bar is going to be 2/3 blank in those apps and essentially become detrimental to productivity because those apps still support shortcuts that involve the function keys.
6. It takes multiple taps to get to full music control. It takes at least 2 taps to adjust volume or brightness. Etc... you get the idea. With a regular keyboard, you get instant music control, brightness, volume, etc...
7. Pet peeve, but... with it being on top of the keyboard, which sits pretty far away because the trackpad is huge now, I always have to reach for the touch bar when I need it. Not a problem for me but my wife has complained more than once. She has since inherited my MBP 13" now and she complains about it... a lot more.

8. The fact that my wife complains (very regularly now) about it makes me hate it. Put yourself in my shoes and you will see why you will come to hate the Touch Bar too.

 

[Michael Scrip]

People said that about 3D Touch. I think the fact that we haven’t seen Touch Bar move to the desktop says a lot in the same way us never seeing 3D Touch move to iPad said a lot.

My thoughts exactly.

I would imagine that the new Macbook Air will become Apple's best selling laptop.

Yet it doesn't have the TouchBar.

And since it's tied to the T2 chip... no matter how much money you spend on a Mac desktop... either $800 for a Mac Mini... $1,100 for an iMac... or $6,000 for the Mac Pro... they don't have a TouchBar.

Only the Macbook Pro has a TouchBar.

It's like Apple is saying "this feature is SO good... SO important... but only a certain percentage of our products have it"

Seems weird for particular feature.

 

[jwolf6589]

Despite it being more useful now (please see my post above), I still hate the touch bar because:

1. I have to look down on the keyboard to use it. I don't like to do that.
2. Assuming I'm okay with having to look down on the keyboard to see which keys I'm hitting, it's very hard for me to see the touch bar because it's at an angle, and in an effort to save on battery life, Apple dimmed the living daylight out of it. Pun intended.
3. And that leads to #3: it sucks battery life just being there.
4. This is no longer the case with the 16" MacBook Pro, but the Esc key was gone. Tapping the Esc key is not the same as hitting an actual Esc key especially if you work with code and the terminal a lot.
5. A lot of apps still don't support it, effectively meaning either I force the function keys on only when I execute those apps and then have to switch back when I don't, or the touch bar is going to be 2/3 blank in those apps and essentially become detrimental to productivity because those apps still support shortcuts that involve the function keys.
6. It takes multiple taps to get to full music control. It takes at least 2 taps to adjust volume or brightness. Etc... you get the idea. With a regular keyboard, you get instant music control, brightness, volume, etc...
7. Pet peeve, but... with it being on top of the keyboard, which sits pretty far away because the trackpad is huge now, I always have to reach for the touch bar when I need it. Not a problem for me but my wife has complained more than once. She has since inherited my MBP 13" now and she complains about it... a lot more.

8. The fact that my wife complains (very regularly now) about it makes me hate it. Put yourself in my shoes and you will see why you will come to hate the Touch Bar too.

Are you saying I should rather upgrade to the new MacBook Air over the Pro?

 

[bill-p]

Are you saying I should rather upgrade to the new MacBook Air over the Pro?

No. I had the MacBook Air 2020 briefly and then returned it. I have a 16" MacBook Pro now. How I felt about the MacBook Air... can probably summed up in another thread, but let's just say... I'd rather live with the Touch Bar than to live with the 2020 Air.

 

[jwolf6589]

No. I had the MacBook Air 2020 briefly and then returned it. I have a 16" MacBook Pro now. How I felt about the MacBook Air... can probably summed up in another thread, but let's just say... I'd rather live with the Touch Bar than to live with the 2020 Air.

well I suppose either machine would be faster than my 2012 MacBook Pro.

 

[senttoschool]

Despite it being more useful now (please see my post above), I still hate the touch bar because:

1. I have to look down on the keyboard to use it. I don't like to do that.
2. Assuming I'm okay with having to look down on the keyboard to see which keys I'm hitting, it's very hard for me to see the touch bar because it's at an angle, and in an effort to save on battery life, Apple dimmed the living daylight out of it. Pun intended.
3. And that leads to #3: it sucks battery life just being there.
4. This is no longer the case with the 16" MacBook Pro, but the Esc key was gone. Tapping the Esc key is not the same as hitting an actual Esc key especially if you work with code and the terminal a lot.
5. A lot of apps still don't support it, effectively meaning either I force the function keys on only when I execute those apps and then have to switch back when I don't, or the touch bar is going to be 2/3 blank in those apps and essentially become detrimental to productivity because those apps still support shortcuts that involve the function keys.
6. It takes multiple taps to get to full music control. It takes at least 2 taps to adjust volume or brightness. Etc... you get the idea. With a regular keyboard, you get instant music control, brightness, volume, etc...
7. Pet peeve, but... with it being on top of the keyboard, which sits pretty far away because the trackpad is huge now, I always have to reach for the touch bar when I need it. Not a problem for me but my wife has complained more than once. She has since inherited my MBP 13" now and she complains about it... a lot more.

8. The fact that my wife complains (very regularly now) about it makes me hate it. Put yourself in my shoes and you will see why you will come to hate the Touch Bar too.

Same reasons for me. Not having that ESC key made it even worse.

The touchbar looks cool until you actually have to use it. Then you realize it makes all the basic things like volume, brightness, mute harder. And everything else is useless.

It also sucks battery life and it made the laptop cost a few hundred more.