According to Bloomberg, Apple will launch a touchscreen MacBook Pro for the first time in 2025 as a result of consumer pressure. For many years, Apple has insisted that a touchscreen doesn’t make sense on a MacBook but more suited to the iPad, despite customers asking for the feature to be added to the popular laptop. It would make life a lot easier for consumers that use the Apple Pencil and work in the creative industry.
Read: Bandwidth Blog & Smile 90.4FM Tech Tuesday: CES 2023 Part 1
The design of the MacBook with a touchscreen shouldn’t be any different than its main line, even though it is a big change internally. Some have posited that a touchscreen MacBook would probably run on iPadOS instead of macOS, but that won’t be the case if it will still be such a powerful machine for creatives that need it to edit and render.
It will most likely be similar to Windows laptops that are 2-in-1 that include both gestures and tap responsiveness. The report says Apple may expand the touch input to include other Mac models over time, but it isn’t currently planning on combining macOS and iPadOS.
The report also says that this shift would coincide with Apple’s shift from LCD displays on the MacBook range to OLED panels. At the moment the company uses OLEDs on its iPhone and Apple Watch devices, with iPads also running on the LCD technology.
Of course, this wouldn’t be Apple’s first foray into touch displays on their laptops. MacBooks had the infamous Touch Bar for several years from 2016, which was a strip above the keyboard that replaced the traditional function row. It had system and in-app shortcuts, spelling suggestions and other touch-friendly inputs. But it was never embraced by developers or Apple’s most loyal customers, and the company decided to remove it in their MacBook refresh in 2021.
