Apple won't let go of the idea of a touchscreen MacBook Pro

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware

Despite continually saying a touchscreen MacBook Pro is a bad idea, newly-revealed research shows Apple hasn't stopped exploring the idea.

Diagram of a laptop with a touchscreen, labeled personal computer, and trackpad.
Detail from the patent showing a touchscreen MacBook Pro



Despite widespread excitement when there is even a hint of a touchscreen Mac, Apple's position has famously and consistently been that there will never be one. Specifically, the Mac and the touch-screen iPad are two different things, and we should all buy both of them.

"We really feel that the ergonomics of using a Mac are that your hands are rested on a surface, and that lifting your arm up to poke a screen is a pretty fatiguing thing to do," Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering said in 2018. "I don't think we've looked at any of the other guys to date and said, how fast can we get there?"

But five years later in 2021, Apple applied for a patent that included a touchscreen Mac, and then in 2023, it filed another one. That patent, "Touch Sensing Utilizing Integrated Micro Circuitry," has now been granted.

"An integrated touchscreen can include light emitting diodes or organic light emitting diodes (LEDs/OLEDs), display chiplets and touch chiplets disposed in a visible area of the integrated touch screen," says the patent. "For example... the integrated touchscreen can also include electrodes disposed in the visible area of the integrated touch screen."

Patents do always aim to be sufficiently specific as to be defensible in court, but also broad to cover as wide a range of applications as possible. It is possible, then, that Apple is really investigating any kind of touchscreen, intending it for any kind of device, if it even has a particular device in mind.

However, as well as an illustration showing a MacBook Pro with a touchscreen, the text repeatedly refers to "an example personal computer that includes a trackpad and an integrated touch screen."

"Additionally it should be understood that although the disclosure herein primarily focuses on integrated touch screens," continues the patent, "some of the disclosure is also applicable to touch sensor panels without a corresponding display."

That's definitely Apple trying to cover all bases. And the majority of the patent's 51 pages and 15,000 words are concentrated on the specifics of making any touchscreen work.

In the patent, there are detailed explanations of how a screen can "include light emitting diodes or organic light emitting diodes (LEDs/OLEDs)." There are also discussions of "display chiplets and touch chiplets" to allow for touch-detection.

There's also a rare nod to pricing, with Apple even noting that "touch screens... are popular because of their ease and versatility of operation as well as their declining price."

Certainly something has stopped Apple putting a touchscreen into a MacBook Pro so far, but it's unlikely to be the cost.

This patent is credited to six inventors, including Christoph H. Krah, whose previous work includes touchscreens for the iPhone.



Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,971member
    The reasoning behind not having a touchscreen laptop option was always sketchy IMO.

    Competing products have long had them without complaints or tired arms from users. 

    Tablets absolutely need keyboards for true productivity tasks and that effectively makes the combo a pseudo laptop. How many of those users have issues touching their screens? 

    It would also be great for 3:2 screen aspect ratios to become an Apple laptop option too. 
  • Reply 2 of 11
    I sit here writing this comment on a new 13 inch iPad Pro with the Apple magic keyboard with trackpad.
    Other than some software, they’ve already created the touch laptop,
    9secondkox2auxiowatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 11
    Just add the touchscreen and be done with it. Add a ui toggle in settings for touch controls for those who can’t seem to manage the already touch friendly ui and boom. Done. 

    It’s time. 
  • Reply 4 of 11
    charlesncharlesn Posts: 1,069member
    With its M-series chips that can easily boot into iPadOS or MacOS, there's no reason to try to ham-fist "touch" into an OS that was never designed for it when Apple could (but never will) release a tablet capable of booting into either OS, selectable by the user at startup. Boot into iPadOS and the tablet behaves like a regular iPad. Boot into MacOS and the tablet turns off touch screen capability and you essentially have a Macbook when the tablet is paired with a Magic Keyboard. 

    The only reason we will never get such a device is because Apple wants to continue selling us two devices, not one. 
    muthuk_vanalingam9secondkox2
  • Reply 5 of 11
    Maybe this will finally motivate apple to again offer a 17” or even 18” notebook. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 11
    mike1mike1 Posts: 3,409member
    Just because they're looking to develop and patent technology that could wind up in other products, doesn't mean the would or should introduce a touchscreen laptop.



    Personally, I've had a work PC with a touchscreen for years and have never once felt the need to touch the screen. In fact, it is a nuisance when pointing to the screen and accidentally touching it. Never have seen anyone else use the functionality either.

    watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 11
    I often wonder if the Touchbar on MacBooks was the first foray into a "touchscreen" for laptops.  Sadly discontinued.

    I liked it!  Then again, I am one of the few people who loved the hockey-puck mouse, since I realized you had to put your whole palm over it to use it correctly.  Thereby reducing the chances of carpal tunnel syndrome from finger clicking.  Which means I was never a fan of two-button mice either.

    edited September 3 9secondkox2watto_cobraroundaboutnow
  • Reply 8 of 11
    I often wonder if the Touchbar on MacBooks was the first foray into a "touchscreen" for laptops.  Sadly discontinued.

    I liked it!  Then again, I am one of the few people who loved the hockey-puck mouse, since I realized you had to put your whole palm over it to use it correctly.  Thereby reducing the chances of carpal tunnel syndrome from finger clicking.  Which means I was never a fan of two-button mice either.

    Seconded on the Touch Bar. It was great. Too bad it didn’t get the development it deserved. 

    Not really sold on the one button mouse, but the Magic Mouse is by far the best I’ve ever used and I’ve used them all. 

    A touch screen Mac makes a heck of a lot more sense than a Mac OS tablet. But if they want to do Both, I don’t see a problem. Just don’t develop one product and then neglect to give the same attention to the other. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 11
    How does this work? There is obviously decades of prior art for this patent?
  • Reply 10 of 11
    Just add the touchscreen and be done with it. Add a ui toggle in settings for touch controls for those who can’t seem to manage the already touch friendly ui and boom. Done. 

    It’s time. 
    It's time for what? Gorilla arm? : )  Seriously, I get that there are literally dozens of you who want to swipe your finger across a pristine display and muck it up just to quickly select something that requires the precision of a mouse. I get that it won't add much marginal cost and having the easy option to disable it would make both camps happy. I'm also happy that Apple curates product lines, pruning features to a necessary list of features rather than just make every option available. You can tell which camp I'm in but I guess we're all in agreement that Apple always has tough decisions to try to make both of us happy!
    9secondkox2
  • Reply 11 of 11
    Just add the touchscreen and be done with it. Add a ui toggle in settings for touch controls for those who can’t seem to manage the already touch friendly ui and boom. Done. 

    It’s time. 
    It's time for what? Gorilla arm? : )  Seriously, I get that there are literally dozens of you who want to swipe your finger across a pristine display and muck it up just to quickly select something that requires the precision of a mouse. I get that it won't add much marginal cost and having the easy option to disable it would make both camps happy. I'm also happy that Apple curates product lines, pruning features to a necessary list of features rather than just make every option available. You can tell which camp I'm in but I guess we're all in agreement that Apple always has tough decisions to try to make both of us happy!
    LOL. Get a grip dude. 

    You don’t have to use it at all if you don’t want. 

    But in the instances you want to, you can! What a concept…
    avon b7
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