It’s impossible to think of Apple without a memory of Steve Jobs surfacing – whether it was his stylish product reveals, his blunt emails, or his vision for the future of Apple.
But visionary as he was, Jobs wasn’t always right, and next week we may see more concrete proof of this with the release of a new device that Jobs once claimed would be “ergonomically terrible.” A slew of rumours suggest Apple is poised to release a redesigned MacBook Pro – and the new, super-slim laptop will (gasp!) have a touchscreen.
Of course, iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches, and other Apple devices have had touchscreens for years, but these devices were designed from the start to be touch-friendly, with everything from the shape of the device to the design of the user interface being built around the touch experience.
Back in 2010, three years after the iPhone’s launch, Jobs was speaking at an Apple event about the idea of bringing touchscreen tech to MacBooks. Apple had completed “tons of user testing,” presumably using prototype touchscreen Mac devices, and had concluded that “it doesn’t work. It’s ergonomically terrible.”
Arguably, Jobs was right. At the time, the Mac’s operating system was very much built around the screen, touchpad, and keyboard experience. It was an evolution of the classic “windows, icons, mice, and pointers” design that Jobs famously borrowed (ahem) from Xerox labs into Apple via the first Mac.
And if you’ve ever used a touchscreen PC, like a Microsoft Surface, you’ll know that the experience can sometimes be frustrating. Not least because the window control icons can be hard to touch accurately. And if you point at something on the display to, say, explain a detail to a colleague, you can end up accidentally selecting the item, scrolling the screen, or making some other unexpected change.
But according to several different rumours, Apple will actually reveal a Mac with a touchscreen as part of its October event, set to happen on Oct 13 per prolific Apple leaker Mark Gurman of Bloomberg.
We may see the touchscreen HomePad smart-home controller arrive at the same time, representing a whole new category of device for Apple, along with refreshed AirPods and possibly a home security camera system. (Remember: All of this is unconfirmed.)
But a touchscreen MacBook may actually please many people. As well as sporting a touchscreen, which Apple will have supported via adjustments to MacOS, the laptop is rumoured to have a new, brighter OLED display, and a redesigned body that may be thinner and lighter than ever. Gurman says the machine will be at least “significantly lighter” than current-generation Pros, and that the company has been very busy “miniaturising parts and rearranging components to make the computer much easier to carry.”
To us, this sounds like a dramatic redesign of the unibody aluminium MacBook Pros, which have been a bit thicker and heavier than other Macs for years.
One thing we don’t know yet: its name. Apple chose an unexpected new label for its foldable iPhone – the Duo. Its VR goggles are called Vision Pro, and its new, large iPhones are called iPhone 18 Pro Max. The company still sells MacBook Airs (Air also being used for the lightest iPad model of standard size). Meanwhile, just recently Apple revealed a redesigned, cheaper Mac laptop called the Neo.
The company had clearly been freewheeling a little in its naming conventions under former CEO Tim Cook, so maybe things will change under the leadership of John Ternus? The rookie CEO has been taking a much more hands-on approach to design decisions, per insider information, so maybe he’ll change up the naming systems too? Will the new laptop be called the MacBook Ultra? The MacBook Touch?
We may not have long to find out.
Remember when Apple stunned the laptop world with the first MacBook Air back in 2008? Jobs slid the ultra-thin machine out from a manila envelope and redefined how many future laptops would be designed.
The reveal of the new MacBook Pro could be just as influential, if all these rumours prove true. While touchscreen PCs are nothing new, if Apple nails the industrial design and the user experience, it could set the pattern for hundreds of future laptop designs from rivals for years to come. – Inc./Tribune News Service
