Apple engineers are actively working on producing a touch-screen Macs for the first time, mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg News citing “people familiar with the efforts” with the caveat “a launch hasn’t been finalized and the plans could change.”
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
Apple Inc. is working on adding touch screens to its Mac computers, a move that would defy long-held company orthodoxy and embrace an approach that co-founder Steve Jobs once called “ergonomically terrible.”
For more than a decade, the company has argued that touch screens don’t work well on laptops and that the iPad is a better option if someone wants a touch interface. Apple also has worried that touch-screen Macs could cannibalize iPad sales.
But rivals have increasingly added touch screens to computers, putting pressure on Apple to do the same. A Mac resurgence in recent years also has made the business a bigger moneymaker than the iPad — and the company wants to keep its computer lineup as compelling as possible.
Based on current internal deliberations, the company could launch its first touch-screen Mac in 2025 as part of a larger update to the MacBook Pro, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private.
The current work calls for Apple’s first touch-screen MacBook Pro to retain a traditional laptop design, including a standard trackpad and keyboard. But the laptop’s screen would support touch input and gestures — just like an iPhone or iPad. Over time, Apple could expand touch support to more of its Mac models.
As part of the MacBook Pro revamp, Apple is also planning to move its displays to organic light-emitting diode, or OLED technology.
MacDailyNews Take: Do you really want to smear your fingers all over your MacBook’s display?
Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical. After an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. – Steve Jobs
When run properly, Apple doesn’t follow, Apple leads.
Here’s an idea: Apple could sell iPad Pros as they do now, and for those wanting a “Mac,” Apple could sell them the macOS-powered display-less keyboard/trackpad/cpu/RAM/SSD/battery base unit. Attach your iPad for the display and off you go, you Mac-headed truck driver! Plus, you get to use the iPad’s battery, too, extending battery life to provide a truly all-day battery for portable Mac users. Detach the display and you get your iOS-powered iPad back, same as always.
Too outside the box? We’d love to be able to take our iPad Pro, mate it with this theoretical Mac base unit, and turn it into a portable Mac. Right now, we carry iPad Pros and MacBooks in our backpacks. Guess what’s redundant? Right, the displays. We don’t need to carry two screens on the road. The iPad Pro’s screen would do just fine, thanks.
Buy the Mac base on its own (for those who already have 12.9-inch iPad Pros) or buy it as part of a package (get a new 12.9-inch iPad Pro at a nice discount when you buy it with the Mac base). Imagine if Apple had unveiled this headless MacBook that you use with your iPad at their iPad event last fall. How many more 12-inch iPad Pro sales would such a product have generated? Enough to return iPad to unit sales growth, we bet. And, how many more Macs would have been sold, too?
— MacDailyNews, January 7, 2017
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Low power Mac Pros, touch screen Macs, ….
Tim Cook really needs to retire.
And, Mac Pros–reportedly–with “fixed” memory. No hyperbole…that’s a a sign of a co completely fixed on bits and pieces to maintain rev. In this case, though, the bits/pieces aren’t cheap (unlike iPh charger/cable).
Not sure there is a solution that would allow them to have removable ram and maintain the performance gains the M series packaging affords.
Glued-in vs snapped-in has zero to do with performance.
In the “old days, sure. But the M series is so tied to it’s RAM for the performance that I don’t know if going to a socket would work. I remember reading a technical article on this, but can’t find it unfortunately.
What’s next, Tim, jingle bells on the bezels?
Apple has a history of digging in their heels for too long with the idea that the way they first choose to do something is absolutely correct. Sometimes the market makes it obvious that another way offers more utility: two-button mice, open hardware architecture, larger phones, and now touch screens (if this rumor proves true).
What is the downside to adding utility to your hardware? My hope is that is all this would do. I don’t want to be forced to touch the screen if I don’t want to, but if someone has a legitimate use case for this capability, why not offer it?
Good point on the “digging in”. Overall, support for touchscreen on Mac is IMO something that is well overdue; the UI challenge for software developers is in its optionality instead of it being mandated (vs mouse/touchpad UI).
Something else to consider is that with the PC market moving this way, so too do the suppliers .. Apple could readily be seeing that their non-touchscreen displays stop being cheaper than touchscreen, which removes the financial incentive to go with the cheaper display.
Similarly, there could be tied into the news that Apple’s reportedly looking to bringing display production in-house (vs buying from Samsung/etc) and this is simply a classical Tim Cook of reducing the number of different parts to be manufactured: instead of making touchscreens for iPads and non-touch for Mac laptops, make one design that works for both.
Apple has been behind since Steve Jobs passed away and the idiot has taken over.
I’ve already got finger prints on my MacBook Pro from reaching up and touching the screen – damn you muscle memory and iPad….
Apple just do it already, that ship has sailed…
Something like this would be very welcome as a real alternative to what Wacom has to offer in the professional pen display market. Considering Apple is in the tv game now, I bet someone has noticed floors full of production artists with their Mac Studio computers hooked up to a sea of $2k-$3k Wacom Cintiq displays(price before factoring in the stand).
Long as it’s pen-based and not finger-based I’d be good with it. I like a clean screen.
I think that mandating touch-based controls universally on a Mac would be a massive mistake, and would be an overall marketing failure. This being said, if the ability to use touchscreen controls was done very selectively, according to the individual app being run, it could be very beneficial, if each particular app was thoughtfully designed for productivity (not stupidity). One of the best uses for this technology would be in Logic Pro. Being able to add a free floating touchscreen to any existing Mac would allow you to have a touch controlled mixing board, and leave the other Logic windows & controls alone, that make better sense to be operated by keyboard, mouse or trackpad. One of the rumored ~16″ iPad Pros would be great used as the mobile mixing board. You can use it wirelessly, in your lap, as you tweak your mixes. I agree with Steve Jobs that touch screens are lousy in a near vertical orientation such as on a laptop. Slide controls, such as on a mixing board will only work in a near-horizontal plane.
While I agree that a touchscreen Mac that remains essentially unchanged otherwise wouldn’t be that much more useful, this subject begs the discussion of why iPads haven’t moved closer to Macs software-wise. What we want is what MDN has been repeating for years, an iPad-like screen that docks with a keyboards/trackpad. They already have this with the iPad Pro but the business-card-sized trackpad and function-keyless Magic Keyboard are intentionally hobbled (not to mention the OS). Have the damn thing run iPad OS when in tablet mode and Mac OS only when docked but get on with it Apple! I’ve already played the game of buying 5 different devices for various use cases. If the reported cuts of M2 MBP orders are any indication, the gravy train of Apple customers spending boatloads on devices is over, it’s still the most affluent customer base in tech, but you don’t stay rich by being frivolous with your money in hard times.
Tim Cook was a terrible choice for CEO (there is more to technology than money, Tim, and Steve knew it well), and modern Apple engineers are idiots. I swear: the first company to make an actually viable alternative to iOS is getting every penny of my dollars. I could give a toss about Apple’s ‘reality’ plans. Modern Apple seems to be intent on making things worse, and I say that as an iPhone user since 2008, long before the current crop of engineers etc. even had jobs. Google is not a viable alternative, and that is the only thing keeping Cupertino afloat. The M chips are indeed impressive, but iOS and MacOS of the past number of years work like they were created by r****ded people. Seriously. Silicon Valley no longer seems to be a game that actual grownups play. If Elon ever does make a Tesla phone, Apple is going to go bankrupt, AGAIN.
Getting tired of hearing how awful Tim Cook is.
Steve Jobs and Apple would not have have seen the success they have seen without Tim Cook. It’s one thing to make memorable product announcements, it’s another to deliver 100m units of the product every quarter.
Steve Jobs laid the groundwork, but Tim Cook delivered the goods.
I think there are certain applications that would benefit from a touchscreen. Certain professional lighting and live sound software, for example. Would be nice to have the option.
“MacDailyNews Take: Do you really want to smear your fingers all over your MacBook’s display?”
I usually agree with MDN but even they are behind the times. All one needs to do is look on Amazon for non-smear (fingerprint) Oleophobic screens for the iPhone that work and apply to a Mac screen. Available now!
I wouldn’t mind having a m2 powered iPad pro with Mac OS. Maybe a toggle that would switch between iPad OS and Mac OS?