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Title: A MacBook Pro touchscreen? About damn time

Link: https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/a-...

It's somewhat ironic that Apple, the company that popularized the use of
capacitive touchscreens with the iPhone and iPad, has been staunchly opposed
to bringing our fingers anywhere near MacBook screens. Meanwhile, Microsoft
and PC makers jumped at the opportunity to build touchscreen laptops years
ago. The tablet-focused Windows 8 was a failure, sure, but touchscreens led
to excellent convertible notebooks and hybrid tablets like the Surface
lineup. Now, according to a new rumor from longtime Apple analyst Ming-Chi
Kuo, Apple might finally be ready to bring touchscreens to the MacBook Pro.

In a tweet posted this morning, Kuo wrote, "MacBook models will feature a
touch panel for the first time, further blurring the line with the iPad. This
shift appears to reflect AppleΓÇÖs long-term observation of iPad user
behavior, indicating that in certain scenarios, touch controls can enhance
both productivity and the overall user experience."

MacBook models will feature a touch panel for the first time, further
blurring the line with the iPad. This shift appears to reflect AppleΓÇÖs long-
term observation of iPad user behavior, indicating that in certain scenarios,
touch controls can enhance both productivity and the…

— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) September 17, 2025

Specifically, Kuo says that touchscreen MacBook Pro models are "expected to
enter mass production by late 2026," and that they'll use on-cell touch
technology. Cheaper MacBooks (likely the Air) coming in late 2025 likely
won't have touchscreens, but that could change with a 2027 refresh.

ItΓÇÖs worth pointing out that KuoΓÇÖs predictions, which typically come from
sources within AppleΓÇÖs supply chain, arenΓÇÖt always accurate. But given
the timing of this particular note, and the ubiquity of touchscreen laptops
these days, itΓÇÖs the idea of a touchscreen MacBook isnΓÇÖt too farfetched.

Apple is a stubborn company, no doubt ΓÇö especially when it comes to
adopting features from others. When referring to iPad competitors in 2010,
Steve Jobs famously said, "If you see a stylus, they blew it." While he was
referring to using a stylus for general operation of a device, and not a
highly specific use-case, it was still funny to see the Apple Pencil arrive
five years later on the iPad Pro. There's a certain nobility to sticking with
your design convictions, but it would have been stupid for Apple to
completely ignore the benefits of tablet stylii, something Microsoft was
leaning into hard with its Surface devices.

So it goes with the touchscreen MacBook Pros. It's hard to deny the
convenience of lazily swiping the screen when scrolling through long
articles, instead of tapping repeatedly on your keyboard or swiping a
touchpad. Apple's desire to keep touchscreens away from Macs is
understandable. MacOS doesn't have large touch-points like iPadOS, and it's
been honed for decades to work best with keyboards, mice and touchpads. But
adding in basic touchscreen support doesn't really require a complete macOS
redesign, especially when the platform has already had support for multitouch
gestures on trackpads since the first MacBook Air arrived in 2008.

It's funny that the touchscreen MacBook Pro could also be arriving just as
Apple is finally starting to make the iPad more Mac-like. iPadOS 26 adds the
ability to resize app windows, easily organize them on your screen and it
even brings over the menu bar from MacOS. It's as if Apple is trying to
appease all of its fans: The iPad owners who want more multitasking and
productivity options, as well as the Mac owners who want a bit of iPad-like
convenience.

Both of my kids were able to nimbly swipe around my phones and tablets at the
age of two ΓÇö that's the power of a truly intuitive input mechanism. And to
a certain degree, I also think it helped them get used to the idea of
computing in general. If it's easy enough for kids to grasp, why not make
touchscreens a core feature of as many products as possible?

Simply put, Apple has run out of excuses. The time for touchscreen Macbooks
is now.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/a-...
damn-time-180000315.html?src=rss

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