For years, Steve Jobs famously called them "ergonomically terrible." He wasn't wrong, honestly. Holding your arm up to poke at a vertical screen for hours is a recipe for what engineers call "gorilla arm"—that heavy, aching fatigue that makes you want to throw your computer out the window. But things change. People change. And apparently, Apple’s rigid stance on the MacBook Pro touch screen is finally crumbling.
If you’ve been following the supply chain rumors or the leaked patents from Cupertino, you know the vibe has shifted. It’s no longer a matter of if, but when. For a decade, the company told us that if we wanted to touch a screen, we should buy an iPad, and if we wanted to type, we should buy a Mac. That wall is coming down.
The Ghost of the Touch Bar
Remember the Touch Bar? That narrow, glowing strip of OLED that replaced the function keys back in 2016? It was Apple's weird, halfway-house solution to the touch problem. They basically tried to give us a MacBook Pro touch screen without actually touching the screen.
It was a flop.
Pro users hated it because they lost the tactile feel of the Escape key. Developers found it gimmicky. By the time Apple scrubbed it from the 14-inch and 16-inch models in 2021, most people just felt a sense of relief. But the Touch Bar proved something important: there is a genuine desire for contextual, touch-based shortcuts. The execution was just off.
The real shift started happening when Apple Silicon arrived. Once the M1 and M2 chips landed, the bridge between iPadOS and macOS became a lot shorter. You can literally run iPhone apps on your Mac now. Have you ever tried to use an Instagram or DoorDash app on a Mac with a trackpad? It’s clunky. These apps were born for fingers, not cursors.
Mark Gurman and the 2025 Timeline
We have to talk about Mark Gurman at Bloomberg. He’s usually the guy with the inside track on what’s happening in the basement of Apple Park. In early 2023, he dropped a bombshell reporting that Apple engineers are "actively engaged" in a project to build a Mac with a touch screen.
This isn't just a side project. We're talking about a full-scale overhaul of the MacBook Pro.
The target? Roughly 2025 or 2026.
The design would likely keep the traditional laptop form factor. Don’t expect a 2-in-1
Surface-style detachable just yet. Apple is protective of the "laptop" identity. It’ll look like a MacBook, feel like a MacBook, but the display will respond to your taps. It’s a massive pivot from the "iPad is a computer" marketing we’ve been fed for five years.
Why a MacBook Pro Touch Screen Actually Makes Sense Now
Look at the creative industry. If you’re a photographer using Adobe Lightroom or a video editor in DaVinci Resolve, being able to quickly scrub a timeline or pinch-to-zoom on a high-res photo is intuitive. Windows users have had this for years on the Dell XPS and the Surface Laptop. Apple is simply tired of losing the "creative student" demographic to Windows machines that offer more flexibility.
There's also the OLED factor. Apple is expected to transition the MacBook Pro lineup to OLED displays soon. OLED panels are thinner. They are more efficient. Most importantly, they are easier to integrate with touch layers without adding the "bulk" that Jony Ive used to despise.
The Ergonomic Elephant in the Room
Wait. What about the "gorilla arm"?
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Apple hasn't magically solved human biology. If you spend eight hours a day poking a screen at eye level, your shoulder is going to scream at you. However, the way we use computers has evolved. We use them in "bursts" of activity. A touch screen isn't meant to replace the trackpad—which is still the best in the world, let's be real—it's meant to augment it.
Think about scrolling a long webpage. Or hitting "OK" on a pop-up. Or signing a PDF document. These are micro-interactions. Using a MacBook Pro touch screen for five seconds is great. Using it for five hours is a nightmare. Apple's bet is that you're smart enough to know the difference.
macOS vs. iPadOS: The Software Problem
This is where things get sticky. macOS is designed for precision. The "close" button on a window is a tiny red circle. Try hitting that with a thumb. It’s annoying.
If Apple launches a touch-enabled Mac, they have two choices:
- Change nothing and let the user struggle with tiny UI elements.
- Redesign macOS to be "finger-friendly."
They’ve already started doing the latter. Look at the Big Sur update and everything after it. The spacing in the menu bars is wider. The Control Center looks exactly like the one on the iPad. The buttons are bigger. They’ve been prepping the software for years under our noses.
The Competition is Miles Ahead
Let’s be honest for a second. The Lenovo Yoga, the Microsoft Surface, and even high-end Chromebooks have had great touch interfaces for a decade. Apple is incredibly late to this party. But Apple’s strategy is rarely about being first. It’s about being the most "polished."
When the MacBook Pro touch screen arrives, it probably won’t just be a capacitive layer glued onto the glass. It’ll likely feature some sort of haptic feedback or specialized coating to reduce fingerprints. Knowing Apple, they’ll give it a fancy name like "ProTouch" and act like they invented the concept of poking a screen. And we'll probably buy it.
What This Means for Your Next Purchase
If you are standing in a Best Buy right now looking at a 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro, should you wait?
Probably not.
2025 or 2026 is still a long way off in tech years. Plus, the first generation of any Apple redesign is usually a bit of a beta test. Remember the first Retina MacBook Pro? It struggled with frame rates. The first butterfly keyboard? A disaster. If you need a pro machine today, the current models are arguably the best laptops ever made. The trackpad is so good you might not even miss the touch screen.
But if you’re a die-hard iPad Pro user who is tired of the software limitations of iPadOS, this future Mac is your dream machine. It’s the "holy grail" device: the power of a real file system and professional apps with the tactile intimacy of a tablet.
Breaking Down the Rumored Specs
The rumors suggest the first touch Mac will be a high-end MacBook Pro. We’re likely looking at a 14-inch and 16-inch rollout. The screen will still be a "ProMotion" display, meaning it’ll have that buttery smooth 120Hz refresh rate.
- Display Tech: OLED with integrated touch sensors.
- Release Window: Late 2025 at the earliest.
- Operating System: A hybrid-feeling macOS.
- Price: Expect a premium. Apple doesn't add features for free.
Actionable Steps for Pros and Casual Users
Don't let the hype cycle dictate your workflow. If you want to prepare for the inevitable shift toward a touch-based Mac ecosystem, here is how you should think about your current setup:
1. Master Universal Control
If you have an iPad and a Mac, start using Universal Control. It allows you to use one mouse and keyboard across both. It gets you used to the "cross-pollination" of these two worlds. You'll start to see where touch makes sense and where it doesn't.
2. Audit Your App Usage
Look at the apps you use daily. Are they "Catalyst" apps (iPad apps ported to Mac)? If so, you’re already using the software that will benefit most from a MacBook Pro touch screen. If you're 100% in terminal windows and code editors, a touch screen will offer you almost zero value.
3. Watch the Refurbished Market
When the touch models eventually drop, the current "non-touch" M2 and M3 models will flood the secondary market. These will be the best bargains in tech history. If you don't care about poking your screen, you can save a literal thousand dollars by buying the "old-fashioned" version.
4. Keep Your Current Screen Clean
This sounds silly, but start noticing how often you want to touch your screen now. If you find yourself reaching out to point at something during a Zoom call or trying to flick a photo, you’re the target audience. If the thought of fingerprints on your glass makes you shudder, you might want to stick to the trackpad forever.
The transition to a touch-based Mac isn't just a hardware upgrade; it's a fundamental shift in Apple's philosophy. They are finally admitting that the "Great Wall" between the iPad and the Mac was a mistake. For the rest of us, it just means more choices—and maybe a little more Windex to get those smudges off the screen.