Apple has reportedly decided to use Samsung Display for the next-generation display technology in the upcoming MacBook Pro portfolio. Touch-based input will be introduced for the first time under macOS. Yet the addition of touch brings unique issues to Apple’s laptops.
The Touch Challenge Of Liquid Glass On The New MacBook Pro
Apple is adopting Samsung Display’s OLED technology to integrate touch capabilities into its next-generation MacBook Pro lineup.
Apple has not had much luck with recent changes to the user interface across its devices. The introduction of liquid glass has led to larger, more graphical elements that have taken over in terms of clarity and ease of use. Its introduction has not been met with universal acclaim.
One of the pain points of a touch-based user interface is the large target areas required to accommodate a finger. Liquid Glass is larger than the previous macOS UI implementation, but the touch areas are not large enough yet to be comfortable. macOS will need to increase the size of touch areas, but this must be balanced with the information density and close controls seen in macOS.
A New Dual Developer Framework For The MacBook Pro
Developer adoption of touch-enabled macOS applications faces structural friction due to the requirement for backward compatibility across millions of non-touch MacBooks.
When the touch display debuts on a new MacBook Pro, it’s impossible to have touch retrofitted to the hundreds of millions of MacBooks currently in use. App Developers, both inside Cupertino and out in the wider world, will have to avoid putting any exclusive features in the touch interface; everything needs to be accessible through the trackpad or the keyboard.
The macOS ecosystem had to deal with a similar issue when the function keys were replaced by the touch-sensitive Touch Bar, introduced in 2016. Any information placed on this secondary display had to be available on the regular screen, and any controls available had to be available elsewhere. Given that the Touch Bar is no more, this stumbling block was never satisfactorily overcome.
iPad OS and macOS Parity On The MacBook Pro
Integrating touch displays into the MacBook Pro accelerates software convergence with iPadOS while threatening the functional depth of desktop applications.
The MacBook and the iPad are slowly converging, and there is a certain level of cross-compatibility between apps. The addition of touch to the MacBook will make iPadOS apps more attractive on laptops; expect to see more apps that target both iPadOS and macOS.
Yet iPadOS and macOS are designed for different environments. You can see this in apps such as Lightroom, where the iPad version is a lighter tool designed for on-the-go editing. Compare that to the more complex and functional macOS build. If tablet and laptop are to draw closer, balancing the two approaches in a single app could be the worst of both worlds.
Apple’s Outlook For The MacBook Pro
The addition of touch to the Mac platform will come more than ten years after the mainstream adoption of the technology in Windows laptops. Although it remains an optional component, Microsoft and its partners have been able to balance touch and non-touch in Windows. Apple is coming to this challenge afresh, albeit with far more experience with touch on the iPad and a more controllable environment on the MacBook Pro.