A Macbook Pro Touchscreen? About Damn Time

It's somewhat ironic that Apple, nan institution that popularized nan usage of capacitive touchscreens pinch nan iPhone and iPad, has been staunchly opposed to bringing our fingers anyplace adjacent MacBook screens. Meanwhile, Microsoft and PC makers jumped astatine nan opportunity to build touchscreen laptops years ago. The tablet-focused Windows 8 was a failure, sure, but touchscreens led to fantabulous convertible notebooks and hybrid tablets for illustration nan Surface lineup. Now, according to a caller rumor from longtime Apple expert Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple mightiness yet beryllium fresh to bring touchscreens to nan MacBook Pro.

In a tweet posted this morning, Kuo wrote, "MacBook models will characteristic a touch sheet for nan first time, further blurring nan statement pinch nan iPad. This displacement appears to bespeak Apple’s semipermanent study of iPad personification behavior, indicating that successful definite scenarios, touch controls tin heighten some productivity and nan wide personification experience."

Specifically, Kuo says that touchscreen MacBook Pro models are "expected to participate wide accumulation by precocious 2026," and that they'll usage on-cell touch technology. Cheaper MacBooks (likely nan Air) coming successful precocious 2025 apt won't person touchscreens, but that could alteration pinch a 2027 refresh.

It’s worthy pointing retired that Kuo’s predictions, which typically travel from sources wrong Apple’s proviso chain, aren’t ever accurate. But fixed nan timing of this peculiar note, and nan ubiquity of touchscreen laptops these days, it’s nan thought of a touchscreen MacBook isn’t excessively farfetched.

Apple is simply a stubborn company, nary uncertainty — particularly erstwhile it comes to adopting features from others. When referring to iPad competitors successful 2010, Steve Jobs famously said, "If you spot a stylus, they blew it." While he was referring to utilizing a stylus for wide cognition of a device, and not a highly circumstantial use-case, it was still funny to spot the Apple Pencil get 5 years later connected nan iPad Pro. There's a definite nobility to sticking pinch your creation convictions, but it would person been stupid for Apple to wholly disregard nan benefits of tablet stylii, thing Microsoft was leaning into difficult pinch its Surface devices. 

So it goes pinch nan touchscreen MacBook Pros. It's difficult to contradict nan convenience of lazily swiping nan surface erstwhile scrolling done agelong articles, alternatively of tapping many times connected your keyboard aliases swiping a touchpad. Apple's desire to support touchscreens distant from Macs is understandable. MacOS doesn't person ample touch-points for illustration iPadOS, and it's been honed for decades to activity champion pinch keyboards, mice and touchpads. But adding successful basal touchscreen support doesn't really require a complete macOS redesign, particularly erstwhile nan level has already had support for multitouch gestures connected trackpads since nan first MacBook Air arrived successful 2008.

It's funny that nan touchscreen MacBook Pro could besides beryllium arriving conscionable arsenic Apple is yet starting to make nan iPad much Mac-like. iPadOS 26 adds nan expertise to resize app windows, easy shape them connected your surface and it moreover brings complete nan paper barroom from MacOS. It's arsenic if Apple is trying to appease each of its fans: The iPad owners who want much multitasking and productivity options, arsenic good arsenic nan Mac owners who want a spot of iPad-like convenience.

Both of my kids were capable to nimbly swipe astir my phones and tablets astatine nan property of 2 — that's nan powerfulness of a genuinely intuitive input mechanism. And to a definite degree, I besides deliberation it helped them get utilized to nan thought of computing successful general. If it's easy capable for kids to grasp, why not make touchscreens a halfway characteristic of arsenic galore products arsenic possible? 

Simply put, Apple has tally retired of excuses. The clip for touchscreen Macbooks is now.