The Arrival of Touch on Mac
Last week, Apple finally brought two new display technologies to the MacBook Pro: OLED and touch. For the former, it was just a matter of time; Apple has been using OLED in the iPhone and Apple Watch for years, and also just brought it to the iPad Mini. But touch has never felt like a sure thing. While many of Apple's most successful products have relied on touch: the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch, and some late-stage iPods all featured touchscreens. But until now, it never made its way to Apple's laptops.
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs' words are infamous: "It's ergonomically terrible," he said of touchscreen laptops in 2010, describing how "your arm wants to fall off" due to fatigue. "Touch surfaces want to be horizontal," he added.
Since then, touchscreens have become ubiquitous on Windows PCs and Chromebooks. Outside of the Touch Bar, which was ultimately reversed because Mac users were not fans, Apple hasn't had a real touchscreen on the Mac.
That changed, as the company announced 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with "PROLED XDR" displays with, yes, touch support. The devices are also lighter than existing MacBook Pros, have updated speaker systems, and, yes, are more expensive.
Apple eschewed touch on its laptops for years. But it seems, however, that at least some Mac owners disagreed.
Industry Perspective
Apple tends not to move to a new technology until it can bring to market a differentiated product, Tom Mainelli, group vice president of device and consumer research at IDC, noted. Based on demos shown in Los Angeles, the drive for the change is a clear desire for touch from creators who use the Mac.
The more business-focused answer is the company is creating further segmentation in a mature market, offering a new, more premium tier to its pro lineup.
Years and years of touch
There's one last uphill climb that the touchscreen on the new touchscreen MacBook Pro faces: the price. After all, the touchscreen is debuting on just the new, redesigned 14- and 16-inch models.
In time, touch will likely fall down the stack, to the cheaper MacBook Pro models, the MacBook Air, and possibly even the Neo. You may see a touch iMac at some point. That will take time. After all, the Mac is just getting OLED, too. That means it's unlikely we'll see mass adoption of touch on the Mac anytime soon. It still has to reach the most popular devices, and even then, it has to coexist with the old standbys, keyboard and mouse.
You could trace the touchscreen laptop back to 2008's HP TouchSmart tx2, which had a swiveling screen. The real touch revolution started around two other releases: The Microsoft Surface Laptop RT and the release of Windows 8 in 2012, which had a touch-forward interface and led to a flood of touch laptops.
Windows 10 came and went with more touchscreens, and by the time of Windows 11's release in 2021, touchscreens largely became the default for Windows laptops. On all but the cheapest devices, a Windows notebook typically features a touchscreen.
On Chromebooks, the 2013 Chromebook Pixel was considered premium because of its touchscreen, paving the way as Google experimented with Android apps.
When Apple introduced the MacBook Neo earlier this year, it shocked the industry on price and performance while cutting some features like a backlit keyboard. Competitors like Dell with its XPS 13 and HP with its OmniBook 5 made a point to retain touchscreens and backlit keys.
Apple executives noted that a decade is a very long time, and advancements in display technology, custom silicon, and software architecture finally met their operational standards. Furthermore, a generation of younger creators using MacBook Pros now naturally expect touch capabilities.
Ergonomics and Software Readiness
Outside of tablets and 2-in-1 laptops, many users still find little practical use for touchscreens on traditional computers, aligning with Jobs' historical ergonomic concerns.
There are other historical deterrents for touchscreens, including concerns over battery drain, added hardware weight, increased component cost, and operating systems lacking native touch optimization.
Although Windows 11 took design cues from unreleased touch-first operating system concepts, underlying desktop environments still feel most natural with a physical keyboard and mouse.
ChromeOS remains heavily tied to Android app ecosystems, making certain interface elements more intuitive for fingers than peripherals.
For macOS, Apple has added system gesture APIs to encourage app developers to support touch input. First-party apps are fully prepared, alongside major third-party software suites like Microsoft Office, Zoom, Notion, DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Lightroom, Blender, and Algoriddim DJay.
Crucially, Apple did not remove the keyboard or touchpad, ensuring the Mac remains a traditional laptop form factor rather than a touch-first device.
For creative professionals who require absolute precision, dedicated peripheral drawing tablets will remain the industry standard.
Pricing and Market Outlook
The primary barrier facing the new touchscreen MacBook Pro models is pricing. The technology is launching exclusively on redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch configurations, starting at $2,899 and $3,399 respectively.
Over time, touch technology will likely trickle down to more affordable MacBook Pro tiers, the MacBook Air, and potentially desktop iMac systems, though mass adoption across the broader Mac ecosystem will take considerable time.
Until then, touch integration will continue to coexist alongside traditional input methods like keyboards and mice.
