While the first hybrid computers, or convertible touchscreens, landed on the market at the turn of 2010, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would not follow the rest of the industry and would continue to differentiate iPads and its ranges of Macs, MacBooks and MacBook Pros. .
The firm’s co-founder believed that computers with a touch screen are “ergonomically awful”, especially when it comes to switching from keyboard / mouse to touch use. Apple actually seemed to want above all to preserve its iPad sales, leaders on the market, while developing its market share in computers.
Apple could launch Macs with touchscreen and OLED
However, from 2010 to 2023 changes in user behavior have solidified, and convertible and/or hybrid computers continue to be one of the most popular categories in sales. It’s in this context that analyst Mark Gurman at Bloomberg says Apple engineers are working on a new MacBook Pro with touchscreen.
The device should not be announced before 2025. In addition, we learn that Apple could integrate an OLED screen on these devices. This display technology has been appearing with the competition for a few years now (HP Envy, HP Specter x360 13.5, Dell XPS 15 OLED, Asus Zenbook 14 OLED, Acer Predator Triton 300 SE, Lenovo Slim 9i…), but Apple was up to here remained in the background.
Until then, launching new OLED devices was indeed complex due to limited production capacities and the high costs of screens of such a format. OLED technology has undeniable qualities. These screens are particularly at the top for contrasts, since each pixel emits its own light and therefore a black pixel is an off pixel.
They also have some disadvantages: in addition to their high manufacturing cost, these screens often have lower brightness than the majority of LCD / IPS screens. And the colorimetric rendering may be below what IPS panels equipped with quantum well technology offer.
Apple is therefore beginning on several devices to offer an alternative technology, called mini LED, which combines the colorimetric accuracy of quantum filter technology, the brightness of IPS screens while approaching the precision of contrasts of OLED technology.
This screen technology is based on both a fairly fine matrix of blue LEDs for the backlight layer, topped by an IPS panel with quantum filter. These screens are already found on certain products of the firm: the MacBook Pro 14.1″ and 16″ as well as the latest iPad Pro 12.9″. It is likely that the technology will be gradually implemented in other devices in the catalog.
Mark Gurman underlines at this stage that the arrival of touch screens and OLED in the lineup of Macs is not officially confirmed by Apple. Despite its a priori position on the subject, we know that the firm has already developed prototypes of touchscreen Macs internally, before abandoning them. However, two elements make the arrival of such machines likely at this stage.
First Mark Gurman affirms that the firm’s engineers “are actively engaged” on the project, which seems to indicate that Cupertino has allocated sufficient resources. Then there’s the fact that Apple continues to score points in computers in a generally bearish market and may wish to boost sales even further by diversifying the Mac lineup.
