After years of denial and loathing, Apple may finally be getting around to introducing touchscreens to MacBooks. According to Bloomberg, Apple is actively working on this project, which could be a departure from its longtime approach of designing traditional desktop systems without touchscreens.
According to a Bloomberg report, Apple could launch a MacBook with a touchscreen as part of its new MacBook Pro lineup by 2025. With this lineup refresh, the company may also switch his 14-inch and 16-inch Pro models from LCD to OLED displays.
Earlier this week, another report from Bloomberg indicated that Apple is aiming to make its own screens for the Apple Watch and iPhone. However, there is no mention of the company making displays for his Mac lineup.
Apple executives have long maintained the stance that MacBooks don’t need touch screens. Instead, they’ve been encouraging people for years to try the iPad if they want a larger computing device with a touchscreen, and it’s the closest Apple has come to getting a Mac with a touchscreen. was adding his TouchBar to the MacBook Pro’s keyboard. This is being phased out gradually.
Apple has long claimed that the iPad is the best touchscreen “computer”. The company may have to slowly move away from that narrative if it plans to launch his MacBook with a touchscreen. Meanwhile, Apple’s competitors, including Microsoft, have produced a number of touchscreen laptops in various form factors.
Steve Jobs famously called laptop touchscreens “ergonomically terrible” in 2010.
“We did a lot of user testing on this and found that it doesn’t work. The touch surface doesn’t want to be vertical. Great demo, but after a while it starts to get tired and after a long time you want your arm to drop. It won’t work. It’s ergonomically terrible,” he said. But technology has evolved since then, and Apple has also introduced things like his Apple Pencil. This is another product idea that Jobs hated.
More recently, Apple’s senior vice president, Craig Federighi, also called touchscreen PCs “experimental” and said, “I’m not interested in touchscreens.”
On the positive side, iOS apps on MacBooks could work better if Apple decides to go ahead with this plan. The company first introduced Project Catalyst in his 2020, bringing iOS apps to desktop systems.
iPhone makers are treading a tortuous line. On the one hand, the company has made the iPad more powerful in recent years, offering a desktop-class processor, decent add-on keyboards, and adding a ton of desktop features to iPadOS. So in order to sell both iPads and MacBooks with touchscreens, Apple has to maintain enough differentiation between his two lineups.
