According to several reliable insiders, Apple plans to launch a MacBook Pro with a touchscreen in late 2026. This shift, at least as rumored, follows years of Apple resisting touchscreens on Macs.
MacBook Pro with Touchscreen
Apple is developing a MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive OLED display, scheduled to launch in late 2026 or early 2027. If true, this would mark a major strategic shift for the Cupertino, California, manufacturer, which has steadfastly opposed touch input on its Mac computers for over a decade. The new device will continue to run macOS and retain a traditional laptop design with a keyboard and trackpad.
The initial launch was planned for late 2025, but was pushed back by about a year. The delay suggests that Apple still needs to overcome the technical challenges of incorporating touch technology into the MacBook design. The company apparently wants to ensure that the new feature can be seamlessly integrated into the existing user experience.
This news comes from renowned Apple insider Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, who first reported the plan in January 2023. Gurman confirmed the development and its expected release date in his latest "Power On" newsletter. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo previously confirmed the development of a touch-enabled MacBook.
Decades of Touch Resistance
Apple's opposition to touchscreens on laptops can be traced back to the company's late founder, Steve Jobs, who called touchscreens on computers "ergonomically terrible." Jobs believed that constantly raising your arm to the screen would lead to rapid fatigue and therefore be impractical. This philosophical stance has influenced Apple for years.
Tim Cook illustrated this point in 2012 with his famous metaphor of a toaster and refrigerator—a metaphor for the seemingly absurd combination of different appliance categories. In addition to ergonomic considerations, business considerations also played a role: Apple feared that if the MacBook suddenly offered similar touch functionality, its multi-billion dollar iPad business would be cannibalized.
Instead, Apple pursued other approaches, such as the Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro, which failed to meet the expected user acceptance and has now been discontinued. The integration of iPad apps with Apple Silicon on Mac computers also aims to narrow the gap between the two device categories without enabling direct touch input.
Market Pressure and Shifting Expectations
However, the overall situation has changed fundamentally over the past five years. Touchscreens are now standard on Windows laptops at all price points, from affordable convertibles to high-end devices like Microsoft's Surface line.
Meanwhile, despite significant iPad Pro updates, such as the new iPad Pro with an M4 chip and an OLED display, iPad sales have stagnated. The tablet division has failed to achieve the projected growth rate, while Mac sales have surged thanks to the success of Apple Silicon processors and improvements to the operating system. This development has alleviated Apple's concerns about product line cannibalization. If touchscreen technology proves successful on the MacBook Pro, Apple reportedly plans to expand it to other Mac models. The MacBook Air could be next, followed by desktops like the iMac—although even considering Steve Jobs's words, the likelihood of this happening seems slim. In the long term, the main differences between Macs and iPads will be hybrid functionality, processor performance, and battery life, with both devices supporting touch input. However, Apple has no plans to completely merge the two product lines—it wants to continue to differentiate between its professional desktop computers and its mobile tablets.
