- Leaker Mark Gurman believes Apple has pushed back the MacBook Pro with touchscreen (and the Mac Studio)
- The next-gen laptop is likely not arriving until early 2027, with the chances of a launch this year rapidly vanishing
- More than anything, reaction to the news has made it clear that some Apple laptop fans really don’t want a touchscreen on their MacBook
Apple’s rumored MacBook Pro with a touchscreen (and OLED) is supposedly now pushed out to next year for launch, and we’re told that the Mac Studio’s release has been postponed as well.
MacRumors picked up that in Mark Gurman’s latest newsletter for Bloomberg, the noted Apple-watcher said it was possible that both these Macs could experience a ‘slight’ delay, and — surprise, surprise — it’s due to the RAM crisis.
Apparently, the MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch with touchscreen are now expected to arrive in early 2027. Note that this isn’t necessarily a delay as such, because previously Gurman said these laptops were due to arrive in a timeframe from late 2026 to early 2027.
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So, that hasn’t changed, but we’re now being told that these devices won’t be launched until the latter part of that window, and that this is due to the ongoing memory crisis.
Seemingly the Mac Studio has been pushed back to October 2026, whereas this PC was previously rumored to be launching in the middle of this year, according to Gurman. We’ve already seen this month that some Macs are getting thinner on the ground for stock, of course, including the Mac Studio.
Analysis: a touchy subject
Clearly, it’s believable enough that Apple may have to rejig some of its launch plans due to the RAM crisis. After all, the situation around memory — which includes storage, the SSDs inside PCs, as well as system RAM itself — has not gotten any better of late. (Although we have seen minor glints of optimism, they are just that — very slight in nature).
Okay, so it’s a relatively minor (and obviously theoretical) delay; but part of what’s been interesting here is the reaction to Gurman’s most recent report around the next-gen MacBook Pro (M6) with touchscreen.
Notably, there’s been quite a lot of negative or doubtful feedback around the need for a touchscreen on a MacBook. As one Redditor put it: “Touch on a Mac feels like solving a problem that doesn’t really exist. Trackpad and keyboard are already near perfect for what macOS is built for.”
Another in the same thread observed: “The touchscreen PC fad never really went anywhere. Not sure why Apple would try it out now.”
And another denizen of Reddit simply said that: “MacBook Pro with touchscreen is a bad idea anyway.”
Indeed, there’s a fair outpouring of skepticism in that Reddit thread (all those comments are from the same one) about what Apple is hoping to achieve with this rumored move to a touchscreen (which will come alongside the much-awaited switch to OLED, or so we’re told).
The main concern is that this is going to lead to changes in macOS to support touch functionality that’ll be detrimental to the experience on existing (and indeed future) non-touch Macs.
However, if Apple did this – assuming the touchscreen MacBook is indeed coming – it would presumably have to respect the lines already drawn with macOS in terms of its interface. In other words, whatever touch aspects were added to the operating system would be overlaid on top as useful extras and shortcuts – an additional bonus that doesn’t affect the existing platform.
As the original Redditor I quoted further notes: “Trackpad already covers most of what people want from touch without breaking workflow. Touch on a Mac feels more like a nice-to-have than something necessary.”
And I think this nails it as far as the route Apple would likely take here: ‘nice’ additions that don’t mess with existing workflows in macOS, because disrupting the latter would be foolish (in a world where most Macs still won’t have touchscreen capabilities, of course). And this pretty much aligns with what we’ve heard Gurman say in the past — namely that Apple is going to make macOS adapt to the input method you’re using, whether that’s trackpad and keyboard, or touch.
Other than that, for the anti-touchscreen crowd, or the more undecided skeptics, I guess the broader fear is that this is about where Apple might be heading for the future. And also that a touchscreen (and OLED tech) will make the MacBook Pro potentially a good deal pricier — and in this climate of sky-high RAM costs we don’t need any further pressures making already pricey MacBooks even more expensive.
Slight delays aside, it’s clear enough that Apple is going to need to tread carefully with how it implements a touchscreen for the MacBook, if this is the course it has set sail on.
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