Last week, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple will implement a touchscreen interface when it releases its OLED-based MacBook Pro late next year. Apple has been rumored to switch to OLED display technology for a while now, with the rumors gaining momentum in the past year. The touchscreen rumor has been around for some time, too; as Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said in his latest Power On newsletter, he reported on touchscreen OLED MacBooks in 2023.
Gurman made one interesting point in his touchscreen MacBook update, stating that, “if touch resonates on the MacBook Pro, I expect it to eventually come to other Macs as well.” That implies that touchscreen interfaces would spread to the MacBook Air, the rumored cheap MacBook, and even iMac and other desktop Mac displays.
If this does happen, it’s a big shift from Apple’s historic stance that touchscreens and Macs don’t mix. In 2014, Apple’s Craig Federighi told Cnet, “We don’t think it’s the right interface, honestly. Mac is sort of a sit-down experience.” In 2010, Steve Jobs said that a touchscreen on a MacBook is “ergonomically terrible.”
But times change. Gurman points out that iPad sales have “tapered out,” but Mac sales are up. And my PCWorld cohorts like to remind me that Windows laptops have had touchscreens for years. There’s also the fact that generations of people have grown up using smartphones as their primary device, and those devices have touchscreens. Touchscreens are everywhere–in stores, restaurants, business offices, medical facilities, cars, you name it. It’s become an expected form of UI.
There seems to be a demand for a touchscreen Mac, but I’ve not found formal market research that says so (drop me a line if you know of one). 9to5Mac did an informal poll in 2023, and of 3,235 respondents, half said they wanted a touchscreen Mac in some form. That’s not an overwhelming majority, but it’s certainly enough to say there’s a market.
Given the stated factors, a touchscreen MacBook Pro is an eventuality, and Apple could certainly make the touchscreen a Pro-only feature if it doesn’t “resonate.” But I think it will, and thus make its way to other Macs. Spreading it throughout the MacBook lineup makes sense, but adding it to the desktop lineup is intriguing–a touchscreen iMac? A new Apple display with touchscreen support? Hmm.
What once seemed sacrilegious to longtime Mac users is now inevitable. Apple won’t abandon the mouse/trackpad and hardware keyboard, so you don’t have to worry about having to rely solely on a touchscreen. It’ll be a nice option to have.
