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Apple is about to launch its first touchscreen Mac, according to reports. The company is planning to launch a new version of the MacBook that will come with a touch-sensitive OLED display, according to a new report from Bloomberg. It is expected to arrive this month, alongside updates to its existing Mac line-up with new chips and an improved iPad Mini, the same report claimed.
Apple has long been rumoured to be working on touchscreen MacBooks. But its executives have also been dismissive of the idea since at least 2010, arguing that it is uncomfortable to reach out and press the display of a laptop. The latest rumours come amid a busy launch period for Apple.
Last month, it launched the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo, the latter of which will be released on 23 October , and the company is planning a smart home-focused event on 13 October that will also bring entirely new kinds of products . The increased released schedule comes amid the arrival of new Apple chief executive John Ternus , its former hardware chief, who took over from Tim Cook at the beginning of September. He has been reported to be looking to push Apple into introducing new kinds of devices at an increased speed compared to his predecessor.
The second October event is due to come towards the end of the month, the report said, with Bloomberg claiming it will happen “on or around” Tuesday, 27 October. It is unclear what format Apple will choose for either of the October events, and whether they will feature a public, live-streamed video of the kind it uses to launch its iPhones. The latter event will focus primarily on the Mac, the report claimed, though a new iPad Mini is also expected.
The launch will focus on “creative professionals who work in video production, photo editing and music production”, Bloomberg reported. The headline products will be the new 14-inch and 16-inch touchscreen devices, which will also have new OLED displays, bring the Dynamic Island from the iPhone to the Mac for the first time, as well as coming in a new “significantly lighter” design. Those computers will be powered by Apple’s M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, which were first announced in March, when they were added to Apple’s existing MacBook Pro models.
But there will also be a new iPad mini with an OLED screen, a different placement for the FaceTime camera, and a better speaker system. There will also be new versions of the iMac and entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro that will be unchanged on the outside but get the M6 that was announced with an updated Mac mini in August. Apple’s executives have been negative about the idea of a touchscreen Mac in the past.
In a Wired interview in 2018, for instance, its software chief Craig Federighi said that “the ergonomics of using a Mac are that your hands are rested on a surface, and that lifting your arm up to poke a screen is a pretty fatiguing thing to do”. That echoed statements from Steve Jobs at a 2010 launch event, in which he rejected the idea of a touchscreen Mac for similar reasons. He said that the company had tested the idea but found it “ergonomically terrible” and that “touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical”.
“It gives great demo but after a short period of time, you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off,” he said. “It doesn't work, it's ergonomically terrible.” In 2021, when he was Apple’s hardware engineering boss, new chief executive John Ternus seemed to echo those concerns. He said instead that Apple already made a touchscreen computer in its tablet, and positioned that as distinct from the Mac.
“We make the world’s best touch computer on an iPad. It’s totally optimised for that,” he told the Wall Street Journal then. “And the Mac is totally optimised for indirect input.
We haven’t really felt a reason to change that.” But there have been signs that Apple has been softening its stance. During a 2022 interview, Mr Federighi was again by the Wall Street Journal about the possibility of a touchscreen Mac, and gave a cryptic response: ““Who’s to say?”. It remains unclear how and whether Apple has addressed those concerns about the ergonomics and comfort of reaching out to touch a laptop screen.
While many other companies have launched touchscreen laptops of their own, that problem has continued to limit their adoption, and some have taken other steps such as allowing the laptop screen to open all the way around so that it can be held like a tablet.
Source: The Independent
