With the recently launched MacBook Air, Apple has laid out the M3 generation of macOS laptops. While the incremental increase in performance and potential is welcome, there’s no tangible excitement in Apple’s design. Apple is working on a major change that would radically refresh the MacBook.
The details are in a recently published patent. Simply titled “Electronic Device” (PDF Link), it describes a new MacBook laptop with a metal frame and a glass top and back. More importantly, the patent heavily advocates the use of touchscreens.
Unlike most Windows-based laptop manufacturers, Apple has been resolute in refusing to add a touchscreen to the MacBook and Mac platform. Its large-screen touch-based endeavours have been focused on selling the iPad and iPad Pro as “your next computer.” While this marketing push has been going on, efforts in both software and hardware have been working to bring macOS and iPadOS closer together to allow compatible apps to run on both platforms.
Moving from macOS to iPadOS is far easier in terms of user interface than the other direction. With iPadOS being a touch-first approach, the translation to MacOS currently relies on a touchpad or mouse to replicate finger input. Adding a touchscreen to the MacBook would be a huge productivity boost across the platform and a massive benefit to the iPadOS/macOS integration plans.
Highlighting the new materials for the laptop alongside the use of a touchscreen is a clear indication of Apple’s future plans. If you want to go a step further, the patent also discusses replacing the standard physical keyboard with a second touchscreen.
The inclusion of any hardware in a patent does not guarantee that it will be included in future models and reach consumers; with Apple’s reticence to push the boundaries too hard, I think a touchscreen-based MacBook keyboard is a long way off, but a touchscreen display is long overdue an appearance on the modern MacBook.
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