Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman confirmed the prediction today and shared more information about Apple’s touchscreen MacBook Pro schedule. Gurman says the touchscreen MacBook models are internally labeled K114 and K116 and will use M6 chips; meanwhile, Apple only recently launched the M5 generation of its silicon for this year’s MacBook Pro and iPad Pro. His sources also claim that the laptops will feature OLED displays and include “a reinforced hinge and screen hardware” to ensure the display doesn’t shift while being used.
The laptops will retain the keyboard and trackpad for standard use and be designed with thinner, lighter bodies. Finally, this laptop will reportedly drop the MacBook Pro’s camera notch and replace it with a hole-punch design that allows the display to extend around the sensor. Steve Jobs, Apple’s longtime leader, was firmly against the idea of touchscreen computers. However, most other computer companies have offered touchscreen models for nearly a decade, so Apple held onto that philosophy for a very long time.
It Will Be Interesting!
Instead of adding touch to laptops, Apple spent years promoting the iPad as a device capable of handling the same tasks as a laptop—perfectly illustrated by the infamous “what’s a computer?” ad. It will be interesting to see how touchscreen MacBooks and iPads end up coexisting.
For years, Apple resisted adding touchscreens to MacBooks, with Steve Jobs firmly opposing the idea and the company instead promoting the iPad as a laptop alternative—most famously in the “what’s a computer?” ad. However, as most competing brands have offered touchscreen laptops for nearly a decade, reports now indicate that Apple is finally preparing touchscreen MacBook Pro models, raising curiosity about how these new devices will coexist with the iPad lineup.
