Why won't the next MacBook Pro be touchscreen? Plus my complaints regarding storage limitations

[Queen6]

Apple is being left behind in design and features in an ever shrinking market - people are buying less computers today and the competition has leap frogged them. I think adding a touchscreen will help

Very much agree, Touch & Pen input is exactly why I am moving my primary business systems to Windows, IOS simply doesn't cut it and OS X has zero option.

Thx mostly to IOS Apple has placed itself in a difficult position with the Mac, ultimately as many bell & whistles Apple tacks on to the MBP is will fundamentally only remain to be a basic clamshell notebook with an elevated price tag in a highly aggressive market.

Now that we have 2 in 1`s and convertibles in the 1kg space, the arguments against "Touch" are pretty much invalid, outside of just not needing the technology, which is perfectly fine. Mac fans don't go for "Touch" as Apple simply don't produce such a notebook, if Apple did the reversal would be significant of that I have very little doubt.

One thing is certain Apple needs to try a lot harder and or start pricing their hardware realistically or Apple risk further decline of Mac sales. The vast majority of people are not waiting on a new 2016 Skylake rMBP to make a purchase, they simply view Mac`s as over priced in a highly competitive market, nor do I see the upcoming 2016 rMBP making any difference to the mix. If Apple have any sense they will launch the 2016 rMBP with 256 SSD as a minimum with no price increase on the current base model, if priced too highly they will sit on the shelves same as the current 2015 models...

Q-6

 

[maflynn]

One thing is certain Apple needs to try a lot harder and or start pricing their hardware realistically or Apple risk

That's where I'm at right now, I'm unwilling to pay the premium that Apple charges for a product that has less features, abilities and typically a slower processor/gpu then many of the other competitors.

 

[tubeexperience]

Apple doesn't care much about the Mac these days: that's why.

The iPhone (and the a lesser extend, the iPad) are Apple's cashcows.

 

[Queen6]

That's where I'm at right now, I'm unwilling to pay the premium that Apple charges for a product that has less features, abilities and typically a slower processor/gpu then many of the other competitors.

That`s my own conclusion, as is my business partners across three separate entities.

Q-6

 

[TechZeke]

If they can't add a SSD with reasonable capacity they have no business offering an SSD

Hell no. No chance would want to go back to 5400rpm HDDs just because one person complains about not having enough storage. Also, what manufacturer is offering a 1TB 2GB/s PCIe SSD as standard?

Yeah, in fact my wife's old work, bought a bunch of HPs that were touch screen, and they all loved it. I think people coming from phones and tablets prefer a touch screen on the computer - its what they're used too.

Touch screen on a PC makes sense when the primary goal of device is to be a tablet, like my Surface Pro 4. Even owning a SP4, I have no desire for a touch screen on my rMBP. Usually the people I've seen use the touchscreen on Windows PCs to make up for the lack of a decent trackpad.

 

[inhalexhale1]

Unless I can beam my current page over to a iPad while browsing or beam my whole display to it while video editing, audio editing, etc. that will not suffice when I'm using my MacBook. Stop lying to yourself, you want a touchscreen and you know it. If they announced it tomorrow your panties would be wet and you would be championing the idea of touchscreen on your laptop

I can tell you that I 100% would not want a touch screen in a MacBook Pro or any laptop. I see the value in the surface, or other hybrids where it functions as a tablet, but not in a dedicated laptop.

 

[MacDawg]

I use a Surface for work
Along with a Dell All In One desktop
Both are touchscreen
I never use the touchscreen... ever

In fact, I typically use my MacBook Air at work
At home I have a MacBook Pro connected to a Thunderbolt display and an older Apple Cinema display

Personally I have no desire for OSX to embrace a touchscreen
Would not enhance my experience or increase my productivity at all

 

[AZhappyjack]

Personally I have no desire for OSX to embrace a touchscreen
Would not enhance my experience or increase my productivity at all

I haven't used a Windows computer since I made the switch to Mac/OS X in 2009. So whether Windows, OS X or Linux, I just don't see the draw of a touch screen computer. It's bad enough that I have to take my hand off the keyboard to reach for the mouse or trackpad. I don't need another input device/plane clamoring for my attention. I have my workflow set, and I see no need to change it.

 

[jlc1978]

Why is there such a tolerance for being behind the curve?

Furthermore . . one might notice that with the advent of solid state drives we now have manufacturers putting out laptops with 256 and 512 GB storage like that's sufficive . . sorry buddy but your technological advancement doesn't render a newfound limitation in my needs. 1 TB should be standard for a laptop that's marketed toward creative professionals, I should be able to have a 2 TB option

With 8GB of RAM being the new standard for MacBook Air there's no reason a MacBook Pro should have anything less than 16 at a starting point, I should have an option to upgrade to 32GB

Will there be a 13 inch MacBook with an i7 The rumors are now pointing to a release of the 13 inch MacBook Pro prior to the 15 inch . . if I have to wait an extra 2 months for adequate specs I will be furious

Cost. Having such high base specs adds to the cost and would leave many who don't need or want such specs priced out of the market. By offering upgrade options you segment the market and get more sales. Lower sales mean far less economies of scale and even higher prices than if you offer a base model that can be upgraded by those that want more power. Targeting a very small segment of the market and offering only a machine for them will result in you being an insignificant niche player at best and out of business at worst.
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Unless I can beam my current page over to a iPad while browsing or beam my whole display to it while video editing, audio editing, etc. that will not suffice when I'm using my MacBook. Stop lying to yourself, you want a touchscreen and you know it. If they announced it tomorrow your panties would be wet and you would be championing the idea of touchscreen on your laptop

Not really. I already use my iPad Pro as a second monitor and find the touch screen useless in such a model beyond touching buttons trying to draw, edit pictures, etc. is very difficult since a finger doesn't have the fine control of a mouse. I could use my pencil but it a pain to have to pick it up and put it down when I use the keyboard, compared to switching between the keyboard and the touchpad. I have a muse as well but rarely use it. In addition, a screen is farther away than my iPad when I use the touchscreen, making it even more inconvenient to use the Macs screen as a touchpad. The added cost of a touchscreen would not be worth it, to me. YMMV
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I would like to see Pencil integration with the MacBook via a new touchpad, or, even better, the ability to connect an iPad or iPhone to a Mac and use it as a touchpad for OS X programs. Both of these are far more useful ways to implement touch IMO.

There are third party apps that do that.
Duet lets you use an iPad as a monitor and touch works on the iPad. It has virtually no lag in most cases since it uses the lightening connector instead of wifi.

Astropad turns your iPad into a drawing pad like a Wacom tablet.

 

[pewkis]

No touchscreen no no no. I like a thin display that consumes minimal battery life. iOS is great for touch, that's what iPads are for. MacOS is for peripherals and does it exceptionally well. Atropad and/or Wacom tablets are good for stylus needs.

1TB is A LOT. I used Adobe CC for ~2 years professionally (PS, LR, AI) and never created more than 20 GB of files. Final Cut Pro X and Premiere Pro are a different story, but that's what external Thunderbolt 2 SSDs are for. In summary, 128 GB is fine for internet access + documenting/data professionals, 256-512 GB for average creatives, 1-2 TB for hardcore creatives and filmmakers. Personally, I like 512. 180 GB for OS X, 320 GB for Windows.

 

[moosington]

OSX and (the important part) OSX apps aren't designed for touch. There's no reason to add it to the screen. There's all sorts of awesome touch gestures left to the track pad for a reason. The best thing they could do is officially support using iPads as a second screen for pencil usage. That would be killer.

For storage space, why not grab an external drive? SSDs are pretty limited on storage. Offering 1TB is pretty fair.

 

[AFEPPL]

If they can't add a SSD with reasonable capacity they have no business offering an SSD

But OS X doesnt run well without an SSD, so thats just not an option..

 

[pewkis]

BTW 256-512 GB is a reasonable capacity. Think of all the entry-level 13in rMBPs purchased by college students (not to mention the inexpensive MBAs).

Music, photos, videos, web browsing cache, eBooks, PDFs, documentation apps (Office, iWork), 3-4 Adobe CC apps, even a game or two... That can accumulate gigabytes of data but not more than 512 GB on average (I'd assume).

 

[AbsintheAbstinence]

BTW 256-512 GB is a reasonable capacity. Think of all the entry-level 13in rMBPs purchased by college students (not to mention the inexpensive MBAs).

Music, photos, videos, web browsing cache, eBooks, PDFs, documentation apps (Office, iWork), 3-4 Adobe CC apps, even a game or two... That can accumulate gigabytes of data but not more than 512 GB on average (I'd assume).

A reasonable capacity for a phone . .


Okay, after reading this thread I've installed the correct mental gymnastics to concede my request for a touchscreen, but I'll be damned if anyone tells me 256-512 is a reasonable capacity. Get out of town

 

[pat500000]

If they can't add a SSD with reasonable capacity they have no business offering an SSD

I'm wondering why they had soldered everything..preventing upgrade. ..of course...money.
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I use my touch screen on the Surface Pro all the time. Many times its easier while its sitting on my lap with the keyboard to touch the screen to scroll, or zoom.

This reminds me of the multitasking topic on the iPhone, so many years ago. The people would come out swinging on how it kills the battery, and how its not needed for a phone. Then when Appel rolled it out, many of those same people waxed poetically on how great apple is by re-inventing multitasking.

I think it can be very useful, I have a touch screen enabled All-In-One that my wife uses, and if Apple adds features in to OS X that embrace that type of input, it will be a great move by them

They should have an option to turn on/off the touch screen.

 

[jerryk]

I'm wondering why they had soldered everything..preventing upgrade. ..of course...money.

SSD is not soldiered down, memory is. But, SSD has proprietary connection so you have to get genuine Apple SSD for big $$$ (or slow aftermarket).

Come to think of it I thought there was a law against specifically making interfaces proprietary. Ahmdal-IBM plug comparability comes to mind. Hmm. Any lawyers in the group?

 

[pat500000]

SSD is not soldiered down, memory is. But, SSD has proprietary connection so you have to get genuine Apple SSD for big $$$ (or slow aftermarket).

Come to think of it I thought there was a law against specifically making interfaces proprietary. Ahmdal-IBM plug comparability comes to mind. Hmm. Any lawyers in the group?

I stand corrected, thanks.
But I'm not sure about a law vs. interfaces....i should do some finding.

 

[cmChimera]

You've never play music and then open up another app?

When has the iPhone not been able to do this? Every iPhone I've had has been capable of this, even before iOS 4.

EDIT: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1017279?tstart=0

There's a communities discussion for 2007 talking about a bug where music stops while browsing Safari, and the proposed fix, so it seems that the iPhone was always capable of this form of multitasking.

OP, get a 1TB SSD if you want one. Maybe they'll add a 2TB option (There weren't many options for 2TB PCIe SSDs for the MBP as far as I know.)

I find touch screen laptops to be gimmicky. That and Mac OS X isn't touch friendly, and I don't really want it to be.

 

[jlc1978]

BTW 256-512 GB is a reasonable capacity. Think of all the entry-level 13in rMBPs purchased by college students (not to mention the inexpensive MBAs).

Music, photos, videos, web browsing cache, eBooks, PDFs, documentation apps (Office, iWork), 3-4 Adobe CC apps, even a game or two... That can accumulate gigabytes of data but not more than 512 GB on average (I'd assume).

Heh. Data expands to fill the space available. Add in an iPhone and the number of selfies and photos taken it's easy to exceed 512GB; and then get dumb looks when you say you have to either delete or move to an external drive all those photos and songs you no longer access.

 

[pewkis]

Heh. Data expands to fill the space available. Add in an iPhone and the number of selfies and photos taken it's easy to exceed 512GB; and then get dumb looks when you say you have to either delete or move to an external drive all those photos and songs you no longer access.

512 GB of photos? At an avg of 2 MB a photo, that's 200,000 iSight photos (save another 100 GB for video). Selfies are barely even 0.5 MB.

My sorority friends who are constantly posting on social media don't even come near the 512 GB mark. Their mommy and daddy-funded MacBooks are probably no more than 256 GB and most of them are always complaining about their 16 GB iPhone's "out of storage" messages. I know for sure most of them don't even use the native camera app, so their content is captured highly compressed (i.e. via Snapchat or Instagram). I doubt any of them even know what an external hard drive even is.

But hey, to each their own.

 

[jlc1978]

512 GB of photos? At an avg of 2 MB a photo, that's 200,000 iSight photos (save another 100 GB for video). Selfies are barely even 0.5 MB.

My sorority friends who are constantly posting on social media don't even come near the 512 GB mark. Their mommy and daddy-funded MacBooks are probably no more than 256 GB and most of them are always complaining about their 16 GB iPhone's "out of storage" messages. I know for sure most of them don't even use the native camera app, so their content is captured highly compressed (i.e. via Snapchat or Instagram). I doubt any of them even know what an external hard drive even is.

But hey, to each their own.

Yea, I find hard to believe either but between videos, music and photos from the iPhone and GoPro there's barely enough room for schoolwork.

 

[Heli0s]

What's wrong with using a touchpad, anyways?

It seems like the keystroke on our keyboards is ever shrinking these days, its probably only a matter of time before the trackpad and keyboard merge into one giant multitouch screen. There would be many obvious hurdles to overcome but it would definitely be doable while still allowing us to touch the screen as we would a typical keyboard. The benefits of contextual "keyboard" interface would be massive, and although it would take some getting used to I think the majority would acclimate quickly.

It sounds like this is what Apple is doing with the function keys on this years MBP... Do you think we will have to wait another 4 years for a more drastic UI redesign, or might it happen sooner? A new UI like that could certainly put Apple back in the race for innovative design.

 

[mmomega]

Unless I can beam my current page over to a iPad while browsing or beam my whole display to it while video editing, audio editing, etc. that will not suffice when I'm using my MacBook. Stop lying to yourself, you want a touchscreen and you know it. If they announced it tomorrow your panties would be wet and you would be championing the idea of touchscreen on your laptop

I can 100% disagree with this. I've had several touchscreen computers prior to the iPad being released when touchscreen laptops laid flat and swiveled, up to newer models. I buy 1 or 2 each year when they are supposed to get better, our Docs think they want them but the touch function doesn't get used past the first week. I have a Surface 2, 3 and 4, an HP and Lenovo touchscreens. Noone even uses the Surface Pros, they're literally sitting in my home office desk cabinet and the touch laptops aren't touched.
I've never been a fan of Touchscreen laptops and only bought them thinking it may speed up operations and it only hindered it. I've been trying to implement them over 8 years, they get asked for but never seems to really fit in as a touchscreen laptop.

So for me, the 12" retina MacBook is "my" ideal laptop. I want a Mac, small, lightweight with a hi-res screen.

 

[Saturn1217]

I know I will just be branded a Luddite but I have zero interest in a touchscreen on my laptop. It would actually make me less likely to upgrade. Touchscreens reduce battery life, are thicker/heavier, and require (or seem to always come with) super glossy screens. I briefly thought i would need a PC laptop for work and one of my criteria was no touchscreen. Every touch screen version (like the Dell xps 13 ) was worse (for me) than the non-touch screen version.

Obviously just my opinion and everyone should enjoy what they want but I can't say I'm disappointed that Apple has resisted touchscreen laptops thus far.

 

[nikhsub1]

Touch screens are not needed on a laptop IMO - my current MBP has 1TB SSD and 16GB of RAM so I am looking for 2TB SSD and 32GB of RAM. Need the support for all my VM's