Apple touch screen laptop with pen
Last Updated: 13th March 2022
Founded in a garage in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple began as a personal computer pioneer that today makes everything from laptops to portable media players. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, the consumer electronics giant entered the smartphone market with the iPhone in 2007, and the tablet market with the iPad in 2010, and the smartwatch market with the Apple Watch in 2014. Filters:
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getty A few weeks back I took my first road trip since March 3, 2020. I traveled to New Orleans to speak at a college event and then to Littleton, Colorado for my nephew's wedding. Before this trip, I traveled between 50-100K miles a year for my job and was what one might call a seasoned traveler. Getting back on the road after a 15-month hiatus was a shock to my system and quickly reminded me of why I hate airports. However, traveling these many miles every year, and still needing technology for my work, made me what some called a tech road warrior. Over the years I have worked on many portable computing and mobile-related projects for almost all of the major PC and CE companies, starting in 1985 when I had the privilege of consulting on IBM's first laptop computer. On this first trip back I wanted to travel light so I only took with me the iPad Pro with Apple's new M1 processor on board. iPads have been part of my travel since they were introduced in 2010. While I have used iPad's as a laptop substitute on short trips, I normally always carry a more powerful ultra-lite Mac or Windows laptop to handle more of my advanced computing needs on the road. On this trip, the iPad Pro with the M1 chip more than handled all of my computing needs. It makes me more convinced that at some point, the MacBook and iPad are on track to merge into some kind of super portable computing platform where apps from both operating systems work seamlessly across either device. If you use the iPhone or iPad, you know that Apple fundamentally introduced the touch screen interfaces to the masses. There were many earlier pen-driven touch screen computing devices starting with the GridPad in 1989 and made more popular with the Palm Pilot in the early 1990s. But it took Apple with the touch UI on the iPhone and iPad to make finger touch screen interfaces the most popular way to interact with a mobile device. Apple's touch UI has to be considered a game-changer for how people interact with mobile computers, yet Apple has consciously decided not to deliver a touch UI on the Mac. After using the iPad Pro for a week on the road, when I came back home and started writing on my Macbook Air, I found myself often reaching up to the screen to touch it to open an app or even try and cut-and-paste something I wanted to put in an email. I have the iPad Pro with the Magic keyboard that has a trackpad on it, but I hardly ever use it and instead opt for using the touchscreen to interact with the iPad Pro. Apple did add touch capabilities to the Mac via the TouchBar in 2016, which integrated a touch UI into the keyboard but not the screen. At the time of the touch bar introduction, I had a discussion with a couple of high-level Apple executives who, at that time, argued that people did not want to lift their hands from the keyboard to use the screen for interacting with a program. They were adamant that the TouchBar would give people that feature without having to touch the screen. While some did use the touch bar, it never did take off with MacBook users, and Apple took it out of future designs in 2020. Since the intro of Apple's touch UI, touch screen laptops have become popular in the Windows laptop world. Starting with two-in-ones and now on all types of laptop designs, the optional touch screen UI's are standard fare on about 35% of all laptops produced. Still, Apple remains a hold-out on adding a touch screen to any MacBooks. They continue to be holding to their philosophy that people don't want to take their hands off the keyboard, and the trackpad or mouse is the more efficient way to interact with all of their clamshell MacBooks. Scanning the most recent rumors on future MacBooks I find no references at all to adding a touch screen to any new Apple laptop. I do know that Apple has had customers clamoring for touch screen MacBooks who have become indoctrinated into touch UI's via iPads. However, curiously Apple shows no signs that a touch screen MacBook is on the horizon and is sticking to their viewpoint that their users just don't need it. I have been recognized as one of the leading industry consultants, analysts and futurists, covering the field of personal computers and consumer technology. I have been with Creative Strategies since 1981 and have served as a consultant to most of the leading hardware and software vendors in the industry including IBM, Apple, Xerox, Hewlett Packard/Compaq, Dell, AT&T, Microsoft, Sony, Panasonic, Intel, Qualcomm, AMD, nVidia, Polaroid, Lotus, Epson, Toshiba and numerous others. My articles and/or analysis have appeared in USA Today, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Time and Newsweek magazines, BusinessWeek and most of the leading business and trade publications. I have appeared as a business analyst commenting on the tech industry on all of the major television networks and was a frequent guest on PBS’ The Computer Chronicles. I have been a columnist for US computer industry publications such as PC Week and Computer Reseller News and wrote for ABCNEWS.COM for two years and Mobile Computing for 10 years. I was also a tech columnist for Time Magazine’s Tech section for 5 years. My columns currently appear in Fast Company, Recode, PC Magazine, Forbes and the online publication: www.techpinions.com. My columns and analyses are syndicated in over 55 countries. Further History I am known as a concise, futuristic analyst, credited with predicting the desktop publishing revolution three years before it hit the market, and identifying multimedia as a major trend in written reports as early as 1986. My writing and analysis have been at the forefront of the digital revolution and I am considered one of the leading experts in the field of technology adoption cycles. I have also spoken at many business school programs about marketing to consumers. I have authored major industry studies on PC, portable computing, pen-based computing, desktop publishing, multimedia computing and the digital home. Currently, I serve on multiple conference advisory boards and am a frequent featured speaker at computer conferences worldwide. I also serve on technology advisory councils for IBM/Lenovo, Dell, and on specialty councils for three large semiconductor companies. Read MoreRead LessCorrectionsReprints & Permissions
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For all their innovations, one feature has been conspicuously missing from every MacBook of the last few years. The lack of a touch screen is frequently used as Mac-bashing ammunition by PC users (who have enjoyed them on Surface models for some time), but Apple has steadfastly refused to implement the tech. But now it has finally explained why. In a new interview, Apple executives have defended the decision not to add a touchscreen to the company's laptops. And it seems the explanation is simple: there's an iPad for that. (Check out the best early Apple Black Friday deals if you're in the market for a Mac – or an iPad.) (Image credit: Apple)Addressing the question of why it hasn't implemented touch input, John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, told The Wall Street Journal, "We make the world's best touch computer on an iPad. It's totally optimized for that. And the Mac is totally optimized for indirect input. We haven't really felt a reason to change that." It's a curiously honest answer from Apple (which isn't exactly known for shedding light on its sales strategies), revealing that the company doesn't want the Mac to cannibalise iPad sales. Indeed, much like its recent defence of the controversial new MacBook Pro notch, this seems to show that Apple does indeed listen to what people say (read: moan about) online. (Image credit: Microsoft)And we'd say Apple has a point – the iPad is indeed the perfect touch screen device, especially when paired with the Apple Pencil. But with rivals like Microsoft's Surface Pro 8 showing what a touch-screen laptop/tablet-hybrid can do, and Intel making (admittedly cringe-worthy) digs at Apple's reluctance to go full touch, it's clear that there are some out there who'd prefer a MacBook Well, going by Apple's latest explanation, we'd say a touchscreen MacBook is very much not on the horizon. But don't worry, the new MacBook Pro is pretty incredible without one. We just hope you like notches. Check out today's best MacBook deals below, and be sure to visit our main Apple deals page for more brilliant offers. And we'd say Apple has a point – the iPad is indeed the perfect touch screen device, especially when paired with the Apple Pencil. But with rivals like Microsoft's Surface Pro 8 showing what a touch-screen laptop/tablet-hybrid can do, and Intel making (admittedly cringe-worthy) digs at Apple's reluctance to go full touch, it's clear that there are some out there who'd prefer a MacBook Well, going by Apple's latest explanation, we'd say a touchscreen MacBook is very much not on the horizon. But don't worry, the new MacBook Pro is pretty incredible without one. We just hope you like notches. Check out today's best MacBook deals below, and be sure to visit our main Apple deals page for more brilliant offers. Read more: |