Apple's Work on Touchscreen Macs: What We Know So Far

[Kierkegaarden]

You must think anything they don’t do that you wish they did is due to a lack of “courage” — maybe the idea is just not practical. Did it occur to you that there might be thermal constraints involved, not to mention the engineering involved in essentially rebuilding macOS from scratch?

If there is an iPad-type device in the future that runs macOS, it will have to be much more expensive than a comparable Mac — no concerns over cannibalization. I think they will release such a product, but it won’t be what some of these rumors are suggesting.

 

[East India Company]

Performance apart, the Microsoft surface laptop is a far superior device than the MbA. It’s not because of its touch screen, it’s because of its superior 4:3 aspect ratio screen. With it you really have a useful screen space to be productive contrast to the paltry MbA screen.

 

[Serqetry]

Everyone who thinks they want MacOS on iPad... I suggest you try using your iPad as a sidecar display, then get rid of your keyboard, mouse, and main monitor, and just use an Apple Pencil. Then maybe you'll understand what kind of bad idea you're asking for. If MacOS was a good choice for an iPad, Apple would have put it on there in the first place. Do I think iPadOS could be improved and made more powerful and a little bit more like MacOS?... sure. But I want it to still be iPadOS.

 

[Serqetry]

Performance apart, the Microsoft surface laptop is a far superior device than the MbA. It’s not because of its touch screen, it’s because of its superior 4:3 aspect ratio screen. With it you really have a useful screen space to be productive contrast to the paltry MbA screen.

I thought the Surface was 3:2 ratio, but either way that's still similar to 4:3. And I agree 100%, Apple needs to ditch the dumb aspect ratios. Computers were ruined by the 16:9 TV industry, I'd do anything to have 3:2 or 4:3 monitors become the standard again.

 

[Leachb31]

The Last thing I want is to have greasy fingerprints all over my laptop screen. The large trackpad is already a representation of the screen. This is just gimmicky, and idiotic on Apple's end if they go through with this. The reason why PC laptops started using touchscreens was because their trackpads were garbage. There is no need for Apple to do this given how good the trackpad already works.

 

[mistasopz]

Steve Jobs would literally be rolling in his grave if this really happened.

He would be literally rolling in his grave? Really?

 

[SSDGUY]

Can we have an iPad calculator the app first? I mean, I know they want to get it just right and all, but …

 

[Black Tiger]

Macrumors continuing to bark up this tree year after year is downright comical at this point. I mean, it took less time for them to drop the bogus “Apple is creating a TV set” nonsense. Why is this touch-screen Mac thing still a thing? The iPad is the touch-screen “Mac” and has been that way for some time. None of the reasons Apple has stated for not doing a touch-screen Mac has changed nor will ever change.

 

[steve09090]

Performance apart, the Microsoft surface laptop is a far superior device than the MbA. It’s not because of its touch screen, it’s because of its superior 4:3 aspect ratio screen. With it you really have a useful screen space to be productive contrast to the paltry MbA screen.

I don't understand this comment. Firstly, performance is important, but I think the better comparison would be with the M2 iPad Pro, not the Macbook Air. They are too different.

The screen ratios for the Surface Pro 9 are the same and the Macbook Air is larger at 13.6" v 13". So based on your reasoning, the Macbook Air is better. But as mentioned above the better comparison would be with iPad Pro M2.

 

[steve09090]

Can we have an iPad calculator the app first? I mean, I know they want to get it just right and all, but …

I have a calculator on my iPad. I can't see an issue here.

 

[koelsh]

Can we have an iPad calculator the app first? I mean, I know they want to get it just right and all, but …

It would be nice if Apple actually made one however it's more advantageous for them to leave out the calculator app to create a reason to go to the App Store and buy a calculator app while giving Apple a cut of the revenue.

Macrumors continuing to bark up this tree year after year is downright comical at this point. I mean, it took less time for them to drop the bogus “Apple is creating a TV set” nonsense. Why is this touch-screen Mac thing still a thing? The iPad is the touch-screen “Mac” and has been that way for some time. None of the reasons Apple has stated for not doing a touch-screen Mac has changed nor will ever change.

It's a thing because Apple needs to distract people who want a touchscreen Mac to give iPadOS more time. The iPad is "the touch-screen Mac" no more than the Watch is "the wearable phone".

 

[docbop]

Some Apple fans have long wanted Apple to combine the functionality of the iPad with the Mac, and it appears that it's finally going to happen. Apple is rumored to be working on touchscreen Mac technology, and we could see the first touchscreen Mac in just a couple of years.

This guide highlights everything that we know so far about Apple's work on a touchscreen Mac.

Possible Models

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple engineers are "actively engaged" in the development of a Mac with a touchscreen, and one of the first Macs with a touchscreen could be an OLED version of the MacBook Pro.

How Touchscreen Macs Will Work

The first touchscreen Mac is expected to continue to feature a traditional laptop design, complete with a trackpad and a keyboard.

While a standard notebook design will continue to be used, the machine will feature a display that supports touch input like an iPhone or an iPad.

Operating System

Gurman says that the first touchscreen Macs are likely to use macOS, the operating system that runs on the Mac. Apple is not looking to combine iPadOS and macOS at this time, though the lines have blurred between the operating systems with the launch of Apple silicon Macs.

iPhone and iPad apps are already able to run on Macs with Apple silicon chips, unless a developer opts out of the cross platform functionality.

Touchscreen Mac History

Apple executives have said many times over the years that Apple does not have plans to release a touchscreen Mac. In 2021, for example, Apple hardware engineering chief John Ternus said that the best touch computer is an iPad, with the Mac "totally optimized for indirect input" rather than touch. "We haven't really felt a reason to change that," he said.

Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi in 2020 said that Apple believed Mac ergonomics require the hands to be rested on a surface, claiming that "lifting your arm up to poke a screen" is "fatiguing." Touchscreen laptops from other companies were also not compelling to Apple. "I don't think we've ever looked at any of the other guys to date and said, how fast can we get there?"

Later in 2020, Federighi said that a touch-based interface was not considered for the Mac and that Apple had no secret plans to change the way the Mac works. Apple has been dismissing claims of a touchscreen Mac for almost a decade at this point.

The Competition

Almost all PC manufacturers make some kind of touch-based tablet/laptop hybrid device, many of which are positioned as all-in-one or convertible machines.

HP, Lenovo, Dell, Asus, Microsoft, Google, and Samsung all have notebook options with touch displays. Major Apple competitor Samsung, for example, offers the Galaxy Book, which has a traditional keyboard and trackpad paired with a touchscreen.

Release Date

The first touchscreen Mac could come out as soon as 2025, but there is time for Apple to change its plans.

Article Link: Apple's Work on Touchscreen Macs: What We Know So Far

Just get rid of iPadOS the most unintuitive OS ever and put OSX on the iPad and your done Apple. iPad has M-series chip already so just needs a real OS.

 

[steve09090]

It's a thing because Apple needs to distract people who want a touchscreen Mac to give iPadOS more time. The iPad is "the touch-screen Mac" no more than the Watch is "the wearable phone".

The iPad works as well as the iPad works. It is different from the Mac and it is used entirely differently. Since it added "Files" to the iPad and iPhone, I use the Macbook Air a lot less.

I don't think the iPad is pretending to be the "touch-screen Mac".
I don't think the Apple Watch is pretending to be a "wearable phone"
However, I do use the phone a lot less because I am wearing the Apple Watch, but I use them for different things. I also can't count how many times the Apple Watch has "saved me" with an important call, that I would have missed because I didn't have my phone anywhere near me.

With my use case, I finish each day with 70% battery on my iPhone and my Apple Watch. I recharge my iPad at least once per day. And my Macbook Air generally is 100% charged all the time, or it's 5 days between charges if I am using it portably. I think Apple has a perfect blend of hardware at the moment.

The Macbook does not need a touch screen. Apple needs to improve Siri instead.

Just get rid of iPadOS the most unintuitive OS ever and put OSX on the iPad and your done Apple. iPad has M-series chip already so just needs a real OS.

Anyone who has used iPad in Sidecar (effectively as full-blown OSX as the second screen) will know how bad OSX would be on the iPad.

 

[Tagbert]

1) The ergonomics of a touch screen laptop suck.
2) Fingerprints are annoying.

Except… that’s not how people use touch on a laptop. That makes the mistake of assuming that touch would be the primary or only way of interacting with a touch-enabled laptop. It doesn’t work like that. Interaction modes add to each other not displace each other. When you got a mouse or trackpad you didn’t stop using the keyboard. You just had a tool that you could use for some purposes.

When I’ve had a windows laptop with a touch screen, touch was something that I used for some actions. Tap a button, scroll a panel, swipe another control. Some actions just felt more direct, more engaged with touch. Others were better with the trackpad or the keyboard. sometimes using the keyboard or mouse felt tiring the touch was a relief. One way to avoid repetative stress injuries is the switch-up input methods occasionally so you aren’t using the same hand movements all the time. Touch gives you an alternate method for that.

Apple sells iPads that many of us use mainly in landscape mode with a keyboard case. With mine, I’m sometimes using a trackpad and sometimes touch. Does it seem so unusual to use touch on an iPad? Why not on a Mac, too?

 

[Tagbert]

I can’t imagine the cost of a MacBook Pro with OLED and touchscreen…starting price $3,500??

Windows laptops with touchscreen are not noticablely more expensive than non-touch models.

Samsung has recently been showing new OLEDs that they are making with integrated touch components. It’s part of the screen and doesn’t require a separate layer to be added. Apple has been doing this for years on their phone and iPad screens.

 

[Tagbert]

MacOS would be like iPad OS, so UI will be redesigned, that is major change.

Mac OS would not need to be redesigned if there were a touch-enabled laptop. Touch does not need to be the primary or only input method. If there is still a trackpad and still a keyboard, then people will automatically use the method that makes the most sense for a given action. It’s not an all or nothing thing. A lot of buttons, icons, and links are fully big enough to top with the finger. For those that are not, the user will switch to another method. Sometimes I close a window by clicking the close icon. Sometimes I use cmd-W. It all depends. No need to force everything into large touch targets for intermittent use.

 

[Tagbert]

But....but....what about the side effect of developing "gorilla arm"?

What you get up to in your own home is entirely your business. 💪😉

 

[Tagbert]

i do not want finger prints on my laptop screen

I assume you don’t have an iPhone, then?

 

[koelsh]

The iPad works as well as the iPad works. It is different from the Mac and it is used entirely differently. Since it added "Files" to the iPad and iPhone, I use the Macbook Air a lot less.

I don't think the iPad is pretending to be the "touch-screen Mac".
I don't think the Apple Watch is pretending to be a "wearable phone"
However, I do use the phone a lot less because I am wearing the Apple Watch, but I use them for different things. I also can't count how many times the Apple Watch has "saved me" with an important call, that I would have missed because I didn't have my phone anywhere near me.

With my use case, I finish each day with 70% battery on my iPhone and my Apple Watch. I recharge my iPad at least once per day. And my Macbook Air generally is 100% charged all the time, or it's 5 days between charges if I am using it portably. I think Apple has a perfect blend of hardware at the moment.

The Macbook does not need a touch screen. Apple needs to improve Siri instead.

Siri does indeed need to be improved. It either fails basic tasks or requires magic words and grammar. When it takes twice as long to do something via voice with a 50% success rate on a good day what really is the point?

I was using Apple Watch as an analogy of how ridiculous it is to attempt to treat iPad as a touch-screen Mac as Black Tiger was expressing. It's gimped to be exactly halfway between iPhone and the Mac. Yet Apple keeps pushing iPad as your next computer and some users seem determined to follow suit.

 

[SSDGUY]

I have a calculator on my iPad. I can't see an issue here.

I do as well. They make one for the the phone, so tell me a good reason we have to buy one (if you don't want a free one with ads) for iPad. Yeah it's minor, but ridiculous.

 

[Bonte]

I think it’s inevitable from now on. Displays will have it standard so that removing touch won’t cut costs and if one company has loads of experience with touch it’s Apple for sure. The one technical hurdle is the hinge, it would be stupid if we can’t at least put the screen flat down on a table.

 

[teh_hunterer]

I'd be quite happy with an iPad Pro with runs iPad OS and Mac OS. You could use as an iPad most of the time but switch to Mac OS and when docked to a screen (e.g. when in the office). Samsung does a lite version of this with their Dex product which runs a few Microsoft apps, but the iPad Pros have Apple Silicon so they'd be powerful enough to run the full Mac OS (even if it's separate to iPad OS). User files could be shared between the two operating systems using Files or iCloud.

Either that or they just make Stage Manager behave more like macOS. I don't see why it has to be so simplistic that it's actually harder to use than macOS. If external display support is restricted to the iPad Pro anyway, and you're dealing with multiple floating windows anyway, why not just make it fully featured.

 

[kucharsk]

I've said it before and will again… I sincerely hope Apple never, ever does this.

I don't want to touch a Mac, that's what an iPad is for.

 

[teh_hunterer]

Everyone who thinks they want MacOS on iPad... I suggest you try using your iPad as a sidecar display, then get rid of your keyboard, mouse, and main monitor, and just use an Apple Pencil. Then maybe you'll understand what kind of bad idea you're asking for. If MacOS was a good choice for an iPad, Apple would have put it on there in the first place. Do I think iPadOS could be improved and made more powerful and a little bit more like MacOS?... sure. But I want it to still be iPadOS.

I think people who want this really want a few things:

1. Stage Manager to be less clunky and more free
2. No brainers like being able to choose the audio output, instead of it randomly sending audio to a screen that has no speakers
3. The apps to be more Mac-like
4. File management to... work
5. The ability to install whatever they want

macOS isn't strictly necessary for any of that. But I hope Apple keeps moving iPadOS towards what macOS can do for the most part, and that developers develop more Mac-like software.

Personally, I could use an iPad at my work desk as my sole work device if Apple dropped the webkit requirement for iPadOS and allowed Google, Mozilla, etc to release full versions of their browsers.

But I couldn't use my iPad to make music - I use Logic Pro, so... that's just what that is.

 

[BlairMALL]

What's the issue with offering it for people who want it?
I don't get it.
You don't like it, don't touch.
This is bad thinking on the part of Apple and some superfans.
Steve Jobs was incredible, but he was not a god for all times.

newton4000,

You are correct, Steve Jobs was incredible and not a god for all times. However, one of the things that made him great was his commitment to what he believed was good. Many times this meant doing the opposite of offering people what they wanted. In fact, seeking to serve a market or audience by simply providing what they want can be a chaotic, dynamic, costly fool's errand. I admit that I can get carried away with my reactions and responses to Apple's product direction, rumors, etc., but I don't think that resisting touch screens for laptops (considering all we know about Apple's product history) is bad thinking. There is certainly support for such a device in the marketplace. But is it something that is revolutionary, helpful, intuitive, etc. In other words, there isn't enough demand and demonstration of effective implementation to suggest that it is "bad thinking" to at least be cautious of Apple spending time, resources, etc. to offer it for the small segment* of their user base who want it or that the number of new users would be monumental.

When I put on my Apple Super Fan hat, I say things like, "If and when Apple does it, it will be done well." But I find that it is more and more difficult to pull out that hat and wear it with confidence lately. As a result, I am more skeptical of Apple tackling things that are niche, or gimmicky. I don't think that I am guilty of "bad thinking," but time will tell.

*Admittedly, this is a purely anecdotal analysis of the Apple user market. If you want to crush me over this, I concede the point. It is my perception in this case.