Forget The MacBook Pro, Apple Has Something Much Better

Forbes Innovation Consumer Tech Forget The MacBook Pro, Apple Has Something Much Better Ewan Spence Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Storyteller exploring digital worlds, mobile, music and podcasting Following Jul 24, 2023, 05:45pm EDT | Press play to listen to this article! Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Updated July 24th: article originally posted July 22nd. Apple may see the MacBook Air as the future of consumer laptops and proclaim that it has all the features a user needs, but for many, there are apparent options that Tim Cook and his team have refused to add to the macOS laptops.

Now, new documents published by Apple show a desirable addition is finally being considered. CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 05: The new Apple 15-inch Macbook Air is displayed during the Apple . .

. [+] Worldwide Developers Conference on June 05, 2023 in Cupertino, California. Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the annual WWDC23 developer conference with the announcement of the new Apple Vision Pro mixed reality headset.

(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Getty Images Update: Sunday July 23rd: Those waiting for new additions to the MacBook platform will know that the newest features tend to arrive first in the professionally focused 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models… and these aren’t coming until mid-2024 at the earliest. The details come from noted Apple reporter Marc Gurman. Writing for Bloomberg’s Power On newsletter , he notes that the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models typically debut the latest technology and will not be launched until mid-2024.

That leaves any launch in Q4 2023 with the bare-bones MacBook Air (and the inexplicable 13-inch MacBook Pro) to bring the first M3 chipset to market. Curiously missing is an update to the 15-inch MacBook Air. It would be a touch awkward to present a new version to consumers mere months after its launch at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, but it will mean that the 13-inch MacBook Air will offer significant performance improvements over its larger sibling.

MacBook Pro sign is seen on a laptop in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on April 13, . . .

[+] 2022. (Photo Illustration by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images) NurPhoto via Getty Images Update: Monday July 24th: Looking further ahead, it’s clear that Apple has display technology on its mind. Mihai Matei reports on comments from one of Samsung’s executives around foldable display technology and how one player could significantly impact the market: ” This week at SID Review Workshop in Seoul, Samsung confirmed in a roundabout way that it is working on developing a large foldable screen for Apple.

And by the sounds of it, the panel is intended to be used in a laptop, i. e. , MacBook.

But before this Apple product can happen, Samsung has to iron out a few kinks in its foldable display technology to meet Apple’s standards. ” There’s a question about who is the instigator here… is Samsung working hard to meet standards already laid down by Apple, or is the South Korean company working hard to tempt Apple to move to hardware using the foldable technology that it can demonstrate in use? I doubt that Samsung is working in the dark here; a quiet nod from Apple on the direction it could take in a product demonstrator feels more likely. An Apple store in New York, US, on Friday, June 30, 2023.

Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg © 2023 Bloomberg Finance LP It’s worth looking back at the 15-inch MacBook Air Apple released in June this year . While it is the newest MacBook, it’s the first consumer MacBook with a screen larger than 13 inches.

Given Windows laptops have had this as an option for decades, Apple is arrogantly late to the party. This isn’t the only commonly used feature that still has to make an appearance in a macOS machine. One of the most noticeable areas which Apple has stubbornly refused to acknowledge is touchscreens .

Not only are these widely available as options in the Windows market, but the touchscreen interface is also a key part of iOS and iPadOS. Given the drive to create a single unified platform where one app can run on all these devices, the lack of a touchscreen on any Mac, especially the MacBooks, is a massive self-inflicted roadblock. While Apple’s faithful community pushes the idea that touchscreens are unnecessary (at least until the signal from a Cupertino keynote says that they are), many others are waiting for Apple to realise that touchscreens on laptops are a useful addition.

Apple is certainly working on it, with a new patent explaining how Apple can implement a touchscreen and offer pressure sensitivity as an option for the primary screen on a laptop. Titled ” Computing Device Enclosure Enclosing A Display And Force Sensor ” it details how both primary and secondary screens (such as the ill-fated Touch Bar) can benefit from this technology. As always, a published patent is never a guarantee that a feature will make it through to a commercial release… but they can tell us much about Apple’s thinking as well as what’s being considered by the R&D teams.

And it’s clear that, for all the confidence that a MacBook does not need a touchscreen, Apple has been working on the technology to give a MacBook a touchscreen. The technology is there, the software is there, the ecosystem is being prepared, and the expectation is set. How long will Apple make you wait? Now read the latest Mac, iPhone, and App Store headlines in Forbes’ weekly Apple digest.

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