Ever Trend Zone Last year I described the touchscreen Mac as a “no-dying idea.” Even though Apple says it doesn’t make it multiple times, we see an ongoing suggestion that it does or should.
To be clear, Apple is absolutely I have it I created a prototype for my touchscreen Mac. These first dates date back at least 2008, and are probably early…
Testing Apple’s Touchscreen Mac
I know this because Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said that in 2010, saying the company tested it “a few years ago.” Steve said it was these tests that led the company to reject the idea.
You can see that it’s not going to work. Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical. It offers a great demo, but you start to get tired after a short period of time and want to lose your arm for a long period of time.
It’s not going well. It’s ergonomically awful. I want the touch surface to be level.
Jony Ive said the same thing in 2016. Philsiller did that too.
Apple came to this conclusion by testing whether the Touch screen makes sense on Mac. “Our instinct was that it wasn’t, but what’s wrong? Our team has been working on it many times over the years,” Schiller says. “We absolutely left the belief that it wasn’t the right thing to do. Our instincts were right.”
I can’t remember CEO Tim Cook specifically ruled out that out, but he often says that the company won’t converge the iPad and Mac.
My own touchscreen Mac test
In fact, I was able to test my touchscreen Mac several times. Sadly, these were not Apple’s prototypes, but third-party add-ons for Mac. These took the utilities to shape monitor surrounds with infrared LEDs to detect finger position and movement, and to consider mouse movements to the MAC.
My first test was on my desktop Macintosh in the 1980s. The results were the same in both cases. Steve was absolutely right – my arm really wanted to fall.
Touchscreen Mac Apple (probably) won’t be created
Despite the company’s statement, I don’t Overall I’ll rule out the idea of making a touchscreen Mac along the lines of many touchscreen PC laptops that exist today.
As my colleague Ryan Christofel said yesterday, “history proved that Apple can violently deny something just by secretly working on it behind the scenes.” Perhaps at some point, the company will conclude that it will leave money at the table if it doesn’t.
I said it wasn’t absolutely I disagreed with this, but I added two major conditions.
I’m not against touchscreen Macs as an optional model. Anyone who wants to pay insurance to buy a premium. However, I am very opposed to adding touchscreen functionality by default. I don’t want to be forced to pay a premium for something I rarely use.
More importantly, I don’t want to see the kind of compromise you need to make a Mac Fully controllable With a touch screen. The touch target should be huge, as it is on the iPad. All finesse on macos will be lost, and its impact on both aesthetics and ease of use will be frightening. Certainly, if people want to do some things on a Mac touchscreen, then do them. But no matter what you do, Apple should not turn your MacOS into iPados.
Touchscreen Apple will be (1 day)
There are plenty of indications that the company has a very long-term goal of eliminating physical keyboards and replacing them with a second touchscreen, as long as it rejects traditional touchscreen plans.
It’s a sentence that is likely to pose a fear in the minds of MacBook users. There are three major issues with glass keyboards today.
- They will hurt your fingers
- Virtual keys do not give feedback when pressing them
- Touch type cannot be used because fingers cannot find virtual keys
However, as mentioned before, Apple’s patents explain potential solutions to each of these problems.
- Flexible and deformable keyboard for comfortable typing
- Haptic feedback to simulate actual key movements
- Electrostatic charging that allows you to feel the edge of the virtual key
It won’t happen this year, next year, or anytime soon. My guess is us at least Five years away from making this is a real reality and if I had to spend money on it, I would say like ten years to create what I consider to be an acceptable alternative to physical keys.
But I think that will happen in the end. Because the arguments in favour of it are too strong. In fact, it’s the exact same argument that Steve made for a glass keyboard during the iPhone launch. You don’t always need a keyboard (for example, open a clamshell macbook to view movies on a single flat screen). same Keyboard (think something like a keyboard overlay in Final Cut Pro).
As for this year, my money has no hints at WWDC 2025. what about you? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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Photo by Julian O’Hayon on Unsplash
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