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Apple's Work on Touchscreen Macs: What We Know So Far
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You're assuming that all levels (or classes) of task can fall easily under one method of input and that should be the 'dominant' one. In reality different methods of input are best suited to different tasks - and if users seek the best approach, they will use the one that's appropriate to that task.
For instance, you can't just tell a mechanical engineer to switch to a touch interface when using Fusion360 or AutoCAD because "touch is better for everything else, so get used to it". Likewise, you wouldn't tell an animator that they can only use a mouse and keyboard when their work is designed around a pen tablet.
The primary concern isn't about which method of input is better, but how they fall into different classes of device.
Note the word 'device'. To this point, Apple has actually been very smart in holding back from a convertible/all-encompassing touch/trackpad/keyboard device. Like other markets, they've observed the landscape and analysed what consumers want versus what they need.
Other manufacturers have experimented for many years now and used consumers as guinea pigs for their different ideas, and we've had a lot. Rotating screen, folding screen, screens that rotate back on themselves, detachable screens... But there has yet to be a single solution that satisfies the majority of users, and inevitably support for this hardware gets abandoned quickly. And that is the biggest problem, that armchair critics continually think that there has to be 'one' solution for everyone.
Microsoft may well be the business lecture example of this in years to come. They sought to create the 'single' solution with Windows 8, but the irony was that they actually fragmented their user base more because OEMs manufactured a range of devices with no common ground - and the software, while trying to the Jack-of-all-trades, was the master of none. With Windows 10 they reverted back to a more 'classic' Windows UI, which thus alienated the touch-crowd.
Likewise their Surface tablet has an entirely different concept to the Surface Studio, despite being branded under the same banner. And fewer Windows-based devices are now being sold with touchscreens because the market segment that does want touchscreens in a laptop-like device will use ChromeOS, Android or alike.
Where does this leave Apple? Their solution right now is the iPad, which can be paired with a physical keyboard and trackpad. The complaints against this setup are that it becomes expensive, heavier than a MacBook Air and that iPad OS doesn't have the same level of features as macOS - all valid arguments.
But if - and I emphasis if - Apple feels there is an opportunity to market a device that can be used with a trackpad, keyboard and touchscreen, and which can combine the simplicity of iPadOS with the more fleshed-out experience of macOS, it will almost certainly come in the form of a new product category that is neither an iPad nor a Mac. Both of these product categories were designed around specific input methods and Apple is smart enough to know that they can't force change on either.
In short: macOS and Mac hardware is not designed for touch input.
Biggest issue I have is the inaccuracy of your finger vs a mouse , like typing with your elbows
What’s the actual point of this in terms of performance or user convenience? Can someone think of an example when this could be useful?
In my experience with the touchscreen HP Spectre high-specs laptop, the touch function of the screen is not very useful, if at all. 🤷🏻♂️
In my experience with the touchscreen HP Spectre high-specs laptop, the touch function of the screen is not very useful, if at all. 🤷🏻♂️
touch was never meant to replace mouse and trackpad on a laptop but to add to it (whenever that makes sense, which is, not very often, unless it's a 2in1)
Touch is not a big deal to me, but pencil support would be very welcome
Don’t forget that Apple will slap an extra $$$ bonus for this added hardware “magic” that most users will not actually want or need.
My screen is made for looking.
Like I say to my kids - look with your eyes, not with your hands!
Like I say to my kids - look with your eyes, not with your hands!
Where are all of these people asking for touchscreen macs?
If anything, the iPads with M series should switch over to macOS to run full apps whenever they are connected to a keyboard and trackpad. That would’ve been much more useful than this stupid Stage Manager thing we got. I understand it could cannibalize Mac sales, but that’s what I’m hoping Apple goes back on instead of a touchscreen mac. Such a stupid gimmick.
If anything, the iPads with M series should switch over to macOS to run full apps whenever they are connected to a keyboard and trackpad. That would’ve been much more useful than this stupid Stage Manager thing we got. I understand it could cannibalize Mac sales, but that’s what I’m hoping Apple goes back on instead of a touchscreen mac. Such a stupid gimmick.
As Jobs basically said, you either cannibalize your own products or someone else will.
given touch scren PCs cost lots more than non touch models... theres the issue, put it in and the price goes up even if you dont use it.
i have touch screen laptop. never touch it... but bought for the other features.
Best laptop I ever had: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_tc1000
A truely convertible device that seamlessly morphed from a Mac into an iPad an back would be a dream!
A truely convertible device that seamlessly morphed from a Mac into an iPad an back would be a dream!
Because it would be far simpler to "upgrade" the iPad to MacOS.
Exactly. Simple as f**k. It already has the M chip.
For me touch on a mac is a complete waste of effort, because for most macs it’s just not a good paradigm. It’s a feature I would never use, and I don’t see why I should pay for it.
The thing is, with your finger you obscure what you touch. You leave fingermarks behind all over the screen. You have to lift your arm to a screen that may be sitting on a desk.
The thing is, with your finger you obscure what you touch. You leave fingermarks behind all over the screen. You have to lift your arm to a screen that may be sitting on a desk.
I used a Wacom graphics tablet for years, but it's software was outdated quicker than macOS. I still think the graphics tablet approach is a better solution than touch screen. Touch screen will go the way of the touch function keys on MacBooks and become another useless feature Apple throws against the wall to see if it sticks.
If Apple are developing new OLED/microLED/miniLED screens then it may make more sense to include touch sensitivity as a standard part of the manufacturing process than add the logistical expense of making multiple models (esp. as they'll want to use them for iPads as well). You mention 3D TV - there was a period when it was virtually impossible to buy a mid/high-end TV set that didn't have 3D support - a mixture of economy of scale and not wanting to be left behind - and that would doubtless have continued had the world not come to its senses and realised that 3D TV was an vastly dumber idea than touchscreen Macs (3D movies being a stupid, impractical idea that has bubbled up every 20 years or so since the 1940s). It's still the case with "smart TVs" - I'd love to be able to buy a "dumb TV" and rely on easily-replaceable external boxes, but the reality is that economies of scale would probably mean that would cost the same - and probably more - as a smart TV.
Reality is that a lot of the PC competition to the MacBook range includes touch screens as standard (or standard when you upgrade to a "retina"-equivalent display). We're not talking bargain-bucket cheap PC laptops, but the ones pitched at the MacBook end of the market, like the MS Surface Laptop or the higher-end Dell XPs. ...and while the Mac Faithful might not care about this, Apple do have to care about attracting fresh blood from the PC-buying public, and missing a "tick list" feature is not good.
Then you have the mobile market, which is all touchscreen, and a world were websites and apps are increasingly being designed for mobile first, PC second. Not having touchscreen could become a liability on a very short time scale.
Apple already support running "native" iOS apps on MacOS - most developers have been reluctant to opt in for a variety of reasons, technical and business, but one good reason is that an App designed for touch might not work well on a non-touch screen. Apple are also providing new App frameworks that make it easier to build MacOS and iOS Apps from the same code - so offering Apps with both touch and pointer interfaces should be easier in the future.
The other application for touch may be with audio/music apps - virtual instruments and on-screen mixers are crying out to be operated via multi-touch rather than a pointer.
I take the point about Windows 8 - but the flip side to that was that besides 'forcing' touch interfaces onto laptop users it was part of a futile Microsoft effort to force Windows onto mobile users - a market they'd already lost to Android and iOS. It came with an "App Store" full of crickets and tumbleweed. Anyway, Windows 10 was only a partial rollback - it still had touch-friendly elements - and was generally successful (although MS have a huge, unrelated problem of corporates running 'legacy' software who really just need Windows XP to be supported forever...)
Apple have the biggest/best catalogue of quality touch-screen software for iPhone and about the only substantial catalogue of serious software for tablet devices - much of which just needs the developers consent to run on MacOS. They're in a much better position than MS to produce a hybrid device.
Me too, for decades at work I've been using MacOS with graphic tablets, but it's a pen, not a finger.
Moreover, most forget the ModBook of Axiotron or the various commercial solutions to insert the touch screen on the iMacs, all failed experiments.
They all want an iPad with MacOS, but when Apple made a Mac (with MacOS) as big as an iPad they insulted it. Apple doesn't want an iPad with MacOS, and I doubt it wants a Mac with Touch, after the great TouchBar revolution.
That is a hard slap. I hate hate hate when people touch my laptop screen. I start the slap when their finger extends towards my screen.
Quoting this to highlight its truth.
There is no way Apple goes from selling you two devices to selling you one device. That’s dumb. Unless that one device costs as much as two devices - which would also be dumb. Honestly, it’s ok to have different devices for different use cases. I don’t need my toaster to also make coffee.