Apple Explains Reason Behind Not Launching Touchscreen Mac

Apple recently launched a new line of iPads, and the reviews for the latest M4-powered iPad Pro are pouring in. Most of the reviews talk about the new OLED display, the new chip, and the limitations of iPadOS as a platform. During an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Apple marketing executive Tom Boger, said how the iPad compares to the Mac, and also spoke about whether the company will ever launch a touchscreen Mac.

Boger serves as the company’s vice president of Mac and iPad product marketing. He explained that Apple doesn’t see these two devices as each other’s competition. Rather they see them as complementing each other. The iPad serves as a “touch-first device” while the Mac is for “indirect manipulation.”

“We don’t see them as competing devices. We see them as complementary devices,” Tom Boger, Apple’s vice president of iPad and Mac product marketing, told WSJ’s Joanna Stern (via 9to5Mac). The iPad, he said, “has always been a touch-first device” while the Mac is for “indirect manipulation”—aka using a keyboard, mouse, and/or trackpad.

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Will Apple Ever Launch A touchscreen Mac?

So the big question remains whether Apple will ever launch a touchscreen Mac. Stern tried to get an answer from Boger multiple times: “He remained firm: iPads are for touch, Macs are not. “MacOS is for a very different paradigm of computing,” he said. He explained that many customers have both types of devices and think of the iPad as a way to “extend” work from a Mac. Apple’s Continuity easily allows you to work across devices, he said.” 

“I did ask Boger if Apple would ever change its mind on the touch-screen situation. “Oh, I can’t say we never change our mind,” he said.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is actively developing touchscreen Macs. The company is said to be targeting a release date for a MacBook Pro with a touchscreen in 2025.

The MacBook Pro that is being tested by Apple could retain a “traditional laptop design” that has a standard trackpad and keyboard. The screen is said to “support touch input and gestures – just like an iPhone and iPad,” Gurman has reported.

Also Read: iPhone 16 Pro To Come With Big Changes In Camera Department

Apple To Mass Produce Foldable MacBooks

As per a report to clients from Haitong International Securities analyst Jeff Pu, the company will start mass producing a 20.3-inch foldable device in late 2025 with a foldable iPhone coming in 2026. 

Pu notes that Apple is working on two different internal screen sizes for the foldable iPhone, 7.9 inches and 8.3 inches. Previous reports from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo have suggested that a 20.3-inch foldable MacBook was in the works.