Rumor Mill: Although fans have long called Apple’s MacBook the best laptops you can buy, they still lack a feature offered by many alternatives to Windows: the touchscreen. But, according to a new report, that will change.
For years, Apple has been of the opinion that touchscreens and laptops are incompatible — Cupertino will happily point you to its iPad line for this functionality. However, according to a report by Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, Apple engineers are actively involved in the project to add touch screens to Mac.
According to anonymous people familiar with the plans, the first touch-based Macs that can also work with gestures may appear in 2025 as part of a larger MacBook Pro update. The upgrade may also lead to laptops switching from the current Mini LED screens to OLED. According to Gurman, the same display technology will appear in the iPad Pro in the first half of 2024.
The late co-founder and former CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, was categorically against clamshell laptops with a touch screen. “Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical,” he said in 2010. “After a long period of time, your arm wants to fall off; it’s terrible from the point of view of ergonomics.” His successor Tim Cook echoed the same point in 2012, comparing touchscreens in laptops to a combination toaster and refrigerator. Most recently, Apple senior vice president Craig Federighi said that he “doesn’t like touch screens.”
Apple may still reconsider its plans for touch-screen Macs. The company has experimented in this area before with the touchpad, which was introduced in the MacBook Pro in 2016, but gradually abandoned the 14- and 16-inch models in 2021 after not receiving much love from consumers, although it is still part of the 13-inch Macbook Pro.
Rumor has it that Apple is planning several upgrades to its hardware in the coming years. Gourmet also said this week that Apple will bring more of its components by developing MicroLED screens for use in its devices, starting with the Apple Watch, possibly as early as next year, before the technology appears in the iPhone.
This week we also learned that Apple is working on an all-in-one chip for cellular, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to reduce its dependence on Qualcomm and Broadcom.
