I was playfully ribbing a colleague yesterday who uses a Windows laptop (as you do) and then she started using the touch screen and I promptly took it back. Why the heck don’t we have this yet and when do you think we will?
I realize some people use the iPad as a laptop but I’ve tried and my work world is not made for that.
Somebody give me some hope? A rumor? Bold prediction? Best guess?
Kuo: Apple to launch touch screen Macs, starting with OLED MacBook Pro
A rumor? Bold prediction? Best guess? Maybe all three.
There have been rumours for many years, none of them have come true. Apple will surely have prototyped things and probably even have installed macOS on iPads to see how it works.
But I’ve tried touch screen laptops and after initially using the touch functionality, I stopped reaching out because it’s awkward and you can’t remove the keyboard to close the distance between the user and the screen. Does that make it a gimmick? Maybe.
With the volumes that Apple builds laptops and the additional costs of changing out the screen for a touch screen, is the business case there to make the change when there are no shortage of people who will buy a MacBook (of any type) without a touch screen or an iPad with a touchscreen as it is.
If you then layer (pun intended) on the fact that the Touch Bar was a colossal failure for all but a minimum of people, and that amending macOS to make it feasible for touch would take extra resource that Apple don’t already have, then I don’t see what Apple have to gain.
I’m conflicted because I like @beck and want her to be happy, but I also like me and want me to be happy and I really don’t want macOS to make any affordances for touch, and I doubt its ability to contain both a good touch and good pointer mode UI. Apple, surprise me by solving it with no tradeoffs!
Windows has solved this problem. It sucks no matter whether you use touch or not.
But seriously, I thought Windows did some adapting if you use it on a touch-enabled screen?
Apple may be cautious introducing a Mac with touchscreen because it may sell just as well as the iPhone Air.
We’re mostly Windows for end users at work, and I’ve tested a bunch of devices over the years: Microsoft Surface (2-in-1), Surface Laptop, Dell 2-in-1s, Dell laptops with touch screens. Every time, I think “Hey, touch would be great on a laptop.” And then… I just don’t use it.
It sounds cool, but in day-to-day office workflows the actual usability isn’t there, at least for me. Reaching up to touch a screen gets tiring fast, and a keyboard/mouse/trackpad end up being faster. That might just be me, because I like to drive as much as I can from the keyboard when possible.
The only time touch really helped was when I was doing a lot of handwriting or photo editing (Lightroom/Photoshop). In those cases, using the device in tablet mode made sense. But flipping back and forth between laptop and tablet mode is enough of a hassle that it only feels worthwhile if you’re sitting down for a long session of note-taking or editing.
I will say, our current Dell laptops have remained fairly consistent in pricing, and include touch. Then again, I’ll take my MacBook Pro’s screen all day every day over my Dell Pro in terms of quality.
It would seem that Apple tested some prototypes and then concluded it wasn’t a good idea.
https://9to5mac.com/2025/03/19/the-touchscreen-mac-apple-probably-wont-make-and-the-one-it-will/
The first time I saw someone use a touchscreen Windows laptop, it appeared be a normal computer. Until they touched the screen to scroll as they read an article. On that day that was the only thing they did with the touch screen.
I’ve seen a lot of iPad/iPhone users try to do the same thing, with their desktop computers 
My wife does a lot of work with documents that require signatures. Pre-COVID, it was all hardcopy. Today, she’s electronically signing dozens of things per day with a stylus and the touchscreen on her Dell.
Windows does some, but individual apps vary.
That’s a great use case for physical signing.
We use Docusign at work for similar things.
Of course they do. 
Even Microsoft’s own apps show little consistency. Different window furniture, different text editing capabilities, different colour handling, and, worst of all, some just can’t handle multiple screens with different scale factors.
I can only imagine the eventual fatigue of having to reach over to touch a screen with consistent finesse to implement the same quality of features already provided with a touch screen on an iPad or equivalent (let alone also with an Apple Pencil).
Get a good trackpad. Or a good trackball.
Or mirror your computer to the iPad. I did it with my lecture presentations, displaying also through a projector (and being recorded to the cloud). I could draw on the screen, control interactive demonstrations, and swipe through lecture slides. The only issue was a lag in BlueTooth/WiFi that forced me to stay wired with the iPad to the computer.
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JJW
I don’t use my trackpad for precision operations. I have a mouse for that. The trackpad does what I call “gross motor movements”. Scrolling, flipping between pages, that kind of thing. I can totally see a touch screen on a Mac taking some of these actions. Not on my desk at home where the screen is a long way away, but when travelling. I frequently find myself contorting to that centrally-located trackpad on my MacBook Pro. It’s OK for scrolling, but to move the pointer to a target and click it, it’s a mission. Just reaching out to touch that target directly seems easier. Like an OK button in a conformation window.
This is a good idea! I’ll try that.
Just FYI, the app I used to do the drawing and interactive demos while in mirror mode with iPadOS to macOS is called EpicPen.
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JJW