Apple is reportedly planning to add touchscreens to MacBooks. Bloomberg’s Mark GarmanThis is a dramatic change in the Mac world. Apple has long argued that clamshell laptop touchscreens don’t fit together.
According to the report, the company has engineers “actively working” on touch and is considering releasing its first touchscreen Mac in 2025, in the form of a MacBook Pro with an OLED screen. It is said that there is.
For now, Gurman claims Apple plans to keep the clamshell design with trackpad and keyboard on its MacBook Pros, and that touch could be introduced to more models in the future. doing. Gurman’s sources say the screen works with both touch input and gestures, similar to Apple’s tablets and phones.
OLED will also be a big move. Apple’s 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros use Mini LED technology, but they haven’t made the move to OLED, which is found in touch on many Windows notebooks. Gurman claims OLED will also be on the iPad Pro in 2024.
In theory, adding touch should be a lot of work, as macOS would need to be adapted for larger touch targets. However, some work has been completed. Apple already allows developers to put iPhone and iPad apps on the Mac, so these should be great examples of how other software is developed (in fact, some apps are traditionally feel inconvenient to use the touchpad (touch-first design).
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs vehemently opposed touch screens. “We don’t want the touch surface to be vertical,” Jobs said in 2010. It doesn’t work. It’s ergonomically terrible. “His current CEO, Tim Cook, also clamshells that he says touch doesn’t work on his laptop. If you want touch, get an Apple-maintained iPad.
But as Apple designs laptops around its own silicon, the company seems to be revisiting some of its previous ideas. If Gurman’s sources are correct and touchscreen Macs do ship, they’ll offer a choice that many of the best ultrabooks running Windows have had for years.
Apple used to offer a small touch screen (Touch Bar) on the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros (they still use it on the smaller sizes), but it didn’t get much traction.
