The Evolution of Touch Screens: A Shift in Computing Paradigms

Touch screens have become an essential aspect of modern computing, with many users craving the convenience and interactivity they offer. However, the journey to widespread adoption of touch screens has been marked by experimentation and innovation, as individuals sought ways to incorporate this technology into their devices. Even some Mac enthusiasts wanted a touchscreen on their beloved laptops, leading to the development of creative workarounds, such as add-on devices that attached to the screen to provide a makeshift touch experience.

One notable example is the use of external touchscreen interfaces, which allowed users to interact with their MacBooks in a touch-based environment. These devices were designed to be planted on the bottom of the screen and would emit a light beam that could be broken by a finger or stylus, allowing users to navigate and interact with their computers. While these solutions never quite lived up to expectations, they demonstrate the lengths to which users are willing to go to get a touch screen experience.

On the other hand, many Windows laptops have long benefited from built-in touch screens, dating back to Microsoft's launch of Windows 8 in 2012. This operating system was designed with a tablet-centric interface in mind, and as such, many PCs began to resemble tablets, complete with foldable and detachable keyboards. This shift towards touchscreen-friendly designs has been a key factor in the success of Windows laptops, which have become uniquely suited for touch-based interactions.

However, Apple's approach to computing has always been distinct from this Windows-centric strategy. Macs have traditionally been designed with a more intuitive, touch-free interface in mind, and while some users may lament the lack of a touchscreen experience, many appreciate the simplicity and elegance of this design philosophy. As a result, there is a strong following among Mac enthusiasts who believe that their laptops are perfect just the way they are, without the need for touch screens.

Despite these differences, it's clear that touch screens are here to stay, and as technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative applications of this technology. The proliferation of touch screens has also had a profound impact on other industries, from gaming to finance to entertainment. As young people grow up with touch screens as an integral part of their lives, it's likely that they will continue to prioritize this feature in their computing devices.

In the long term, it's possible that Apple and its competitors will converge on a unified approach to operating systems, blurring the lines between laptops, tablets, and smartphones. As all these devices are built on the same chip architecture, it could become increasingly difficult to distinguish between them in terms of functionality. Touch screens have already become an essential part of our daily lives, from ATMs to handheld game consoles, and it's only natural that they will continue to play a central role in our computing experiences.

The EU's new mandate on charging cables is another factor that may influence the future of touch screens in laptops. As we move towards more universal standards for charging, it's likely that Apple will be forced to rethink its approach to connectivity. While this change may have implications for users, it's also an opportunity for Apple and other manufacturers to innovate and create new experiences that take advantage of touch screens.

As the computing landscape continues to evolve, one thing is certain: touch screens are here to stay, and their impact will only continue to grow in the years to come. Whether you're a Mac enthusiast or a Windows user, it's undeniable that touch screens have revolutionized the way we interact with our devices. As technology advances, it's likely that we'll see even more innovative applications of this technology, changing the face of computing forever.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhen you're shopping for a laptop you're choosing based on a few different factors like size or price or how much storage you want these days you also have the option to go with one of many touch screen options think of the microsoft surface or the lenovo yoga lineup for example touch screens have revolutionized the way we use tech like phones kiosks and car infotainment systems so it seems natural that they'd also make their way into laptops but there's still one major company that's never added a touch screen to its laptops apple despite apple being ahead of the curve when it comes to a lot of tech innovation think of the iphone ipad and airpods for example it never felt compelled to build a laptop with a touchscreen the closest it came was when it introduced the touch bar in 2016. the touch bar is basically a thin screen that sits above the keyboard on the macbook pro it changes based on the app you're using so if you're on your desktop you'll see the function keys but then when you open up messages you'd see emoji or suggested words instead but the touch bar was short-lived and admittedly not very popular apple killed it off in 2021 now newer macbooks don't have any touch screen elements that might seem surprising if apple has the technology to make a touch screen laptop and touch screens have become intuitive in so much of the tech we use why not build that into macbooks well there are a few reasons why it's shied away for so long and why we probably won't get that touch screen functionality in macbooks anytime soon the first thing we have to understand is that apple like any smart company will do what it thinks is best for sales so in the last few years it's released a wider range of products from the apple watch to air tags and even subscription services like apple tv plus apple wants to cover as many bases as possible and sell products for a variety of use cases one of its biggest products is the ipad ipads have essentially served as a middle ground between a smartphone and a full-on laptop they're bigger than a phone but less bulky than a laptop and then with additions like a keyboard attachment and the apple pencil ipads essentially become mini laptops so if macbooks also added touch screens customers might feel like they could just go with either an ipad or a macbook if the two devices have a lot of the same functionality dan ackerman is seen as expert on computers i think if there's one reason why apple does not put touch into macs it is because they want you to still feel like you have to buy a macbook and an ipad they don't want you to feel like you're getting both devices in one and they want to keep those worlds as separate as possible even though in a lot of other ways those two worlds are coming together basically it wouldn't really make sense to still buy an ipad if your laptop also had a touchscreen but with more power and storage in 2016 apple's svp of software engineering craig federighi told cnet that apple explored the idea of a touch screen mac many years ago and even had working models but beside a touch screen compromised the experience for a device that you hold in your hand like a phone or a tablet it's very natural rest your hand on the tablet and and work that way grafting touch on something that fundamentally was designed around a precise pointer really compromises the experience apple will probably keep promoting the mac and ipad as two separate and essential devices until maybe someday it decides to roll out a touchscreen macbook they'll always say in the most opaque way possible that you know i paint your ipads and max and max and they work the way they're supposed to work and those work the way those are supposed to work and that's it until the day they show up with a touchscreen macbook and then they'll go this is the greatest thing ever is the touchscreen macbook and we've been wanting to do this for years but you're not going to know that until it's sitting right in front of you the release of the touch bar could have been an opportunity for apple to test the waters and see what a touch component could bring to the table but it didn't really live up to the company's expectations the touch bar was definitely a misstep in terms of adding touch screens to max it wasn't accepted it didn't work out in a lot of ways i think it was too early because it was doing things that people weren't really asking for it was also taking away things that people wanted which is physical buttons for functions especially that escape key uh you know that's what people really missed most of all but a lot of people who do you know production and stuff they rely on those function keys and they don't want to have a touch version of it they want to have the tactile keys there so you can add touch without taking other things away that's not what the touch bar did that the touch bar took something away to add the little touch screen and that's where i think it went wrong some people want touch screen max so badly that they found roundabout ways to incorporate it over the years i've even seen people come up with add-on devices that add touchscreen to macs like you used to be able to buy these little bars that you would plant i think at the bottom of the screen and it would shoot like a little light beam up and you'd have some software and your finger would break the beam by going around you know on the screen and it would give you kind of a touch screen environment on your macbook but they never really worked on the flip side a lot of windows laptops and especially those that are high end have touch screens built into them this goes back to the launch of microsoft's windows 8 operating system in 2012 which looked more like a tablet operating system similarly a lot of pcs at this time functioned more like tablets and were foldable and detachable from their keyboards that's worked pretty well for windows computers i think windows laptops are uniquely suited for touch screens right now because that windows operating system is frankly kind of janky still and some things are easier to do with touch it's just easier to touch this and touch that and get to the wi-fi networks and the in the start menu sometimes on the mac side i think the interface is much more natural and cleaner so you don't have the same need need for it but i bet there are a lot of interesting ways people could come up with to use it especially if you're doing stuff like i know riding the fader in a music program or doing a jog wheel while you're video editing right on the screen there they don't quite have that desperation need for it that windows laptops ended up having because they really needed to add that functionality to compete but that doesn't mean they're not going to get there eventually and now that they're all running off the same base uh types of chips you know you have m1 chips in max and you have m1 chips in ipads that just means it's easier than ever to get them to mesh also apple isn't really the kind of company that follows the lead of other tech giants it's always done its own thing when it comes to both hardware and software because it knows it has a strong loyal following one example is the fact that iphones use a lightning cable to charge while the vast majority of other phones use usbc this can be an inconvenience for users who just want a universal cable but apple gets away with it because ultimately customers believe in the overall product although apple may be forced to change that soon following a new european union mandate you can check out my video on this for more as big as touchscreens are right now though they're only going to become more ubiquitous with time today's kids are touch native since they grew up in a world where touch screens are basically everywhere from phones to video games to toys even retro gadgets like flip phones are getting the touch screen treatment these days with companies like samsung launching devices like the galaxy z flip 4 and z fold 4. check out my other video on flip phones for more on that eventually trying to market a laptop that doesn't have a touch component will be a tougher sell that philosophy of oh macs have to be one way and ipads have to be another way and it just doesn't make sense that's going to die out as that generation you know moves away and new generations come in where people are less concerned about the dividing line between what's a computer and what's a tablet and what's a phone you know they're not really the phones aren't really phones anymore they're little computers the ipad's not a consumption and movie viewing device it's a creativity device it can be a productivity device it's very computer like so i think it's going to take a while but they are all going to come together especially now that iphones macs and ipads are all built on apple's chips it could be easier to create that sense of unity and shared functionality across apple's devices on a long enough timeline you will eventually have a grand unified theory of apple operating systems where ipads and macs and maybe even phones some other kind of futuristic devices they will all operate in a very unified universal way and you will have to have touch on these devices it's just become such a part of how we interact with everything from you know atms to phones to tablets to you know handheld game console everything is touch-based in the meantime apple and all its biggest fans will probably continue to swear that macbooks are perfect just the way they are without touch screens but what do you think would you prefer a macbook with a touch screen or do you like the way macs function right now without a touch component let us know in the comments and don't forget to hit like and subscribe for more content from cnetwhen you're shopping for a laptop you're choosing based on a few different factors like size or price or how much storage you want these days you also have the option to go with one of many touch screen options think of the microsoft surface or the lenovo yoga lineup for example touch screens have revolutionized the way we use tech like phones kiosks and car infotainment systems so it seems natural that they'd also make their way into laptops but there's still one major company that's never added a touch screen to its laptops apple despite apple being ahead of the curve when it comes to a lot of tech innovation think of the iphone ipad and airpods for example it never felt compelled to build a laptop with a touchscreen the closest it came was when it introduced the touch bar in 2016. the touch bar is basically a thin screen that sits above the keyboard on the macbook pro it changes based on the app you're using so if you're on your desktop you'll see the function keys but then when you open up messages you'd see emoji or suggested words instead but the touch bar was short-lived and admittedly not very popular apple killed it off in 2021 now newer macbooks don't have any touch screen elements that might seem surprising if apple has the technology to make a touch screen laptop and touch screens have become intuitive in so much of the tech we use why not build that into macbooks well there are a few reasons why it's shied away for so long and why we probably won't get that touch screen functionality in macbooks anytime soon the first thing we have to understand is that apple like any smart company will do what it thinks is best for sales so in the last few years it's released a wider range of products from the apple watch to air tags and even subscription services like apple tv plus apple wants to cover as many bases as possible and sell products for a variety of use cases one of its biggest products is the ipad ipads have essentially served as a middle ground between a smartphone and a full-on laptop they're bigger than a phone but less bulky than a laptop and then with additions like a keyboard attachment and the apple pencil ipads essentially become mini laptops so if macbooks also added touch screens customers might feel like they could just go with either an ipad or a macbook if the two devices have a lot of the same functionality dan ackerman is seen as expert on computers i think if there's one reason why apple does not put touch into macs it is because they want you to still feel like you have to buy a macbook and an ipad they don't want you to feel like you're getting both devices in one and they want to keep those worlds as separate as possible even though in a lot of other ways those two worlds are coming together basically it wouldn't really make sense to still buy an ipad if your laptop also had a touchscreen but with more power and storage in 2016 apple's svp of software engineering craig federighi told cnet that apple explored the idea of a touch screen mac many years ago and even had working models but beside a touch screen compromised the experience for a device that you hold in your hand like a phone or a tablet it's very natural rest your hand on the tablet and and work that way grafting touch on something that fundamentally was designed around a precise pointer really compromises the experience apple will probably keep promoting the mac and ipad as two separate and essential devices until maybe someday it decides to roll out a touchscreen macbook they'll always say in the most opaque way possible that you know i paint your ipads and max and max and they work the way they're supposed to work and those work the way those are supposed to work and that's it until the day they show up with a touchscreen macbook and then they'll go this is the greatest thing ever is the touchscreen macbook and we've been wanting to do this for years but you're not going to know that until it's sitting right in front of you the release of the touch bar could have been an opportunity for apple to test the waters and see what a touch component could bring to the table but it didn't really live up to the company's expectations the touch bar was definitely a misstep in terms of adding touch screens to max it wasn't accepted it didn't work out in a lot of ways i think it was too early because it was doing things that people weren't really asking for it was also taking away things that people wanted which is physical buttons for functions especially that escape key uh you know that's what people really missed most of all but a lot of people who do you know production and stuff they rely on those function keys and they don't want to have a touch version of it they want to have the tactile keys there so you can add touch without taking other things away that's not what the touch bar did that the touch bar took something away to add the little touch screen and that's where i think it went wrong some people want touch screen max so badly that they found roundabout ways to incorporate it over the years i've even seen people come up with add-on devices that add touchscreen to macs like you used to be able to buy these little bars that you would plant i think at the bottom of the screen and it would shoot like a little light beam up and you'd have some software and your finger would break the beam by going around you know on the screen and it would give you kind of a touch screen environment on your macbook but they never really worked on the flip side a lot of windows laptops and especially those that are high end have touch screens built into them this goes back to the launch of microsoft's windows 8 operating system in 2012 which looked more like a tablet operating system similarly a lot of pcs at this time functioned more like tablets and were foldable and detachable from their keyboards that's worked pretty well for windows computers i think windows laptops are uniquely suited for touch screens right now because that windows operating system is frankly kind of janky still and some things are easier to do with touch it's just easier to touch this and touch that and get to the wi-fi networks and the in the start menu sometimes on the mac side i think the interface is much more natural and cleaner so you don't have the same need need for it but i bet there are a lot of interesting ways people could come up with to use it especially if you're doing stuff like i know riding the fader in a music program or doing a jog wheel while you're video editing right on the screen there they don't quite have that desperation need for it that windows laptops ended up having because they really needed to add that functionality to compete but that doesn't mean they're not going to get there eventually and now that they're all running off the same base uh types of chips you know you have m1 chips in max and you have m1 chips in ipads that just means it's easier than ever to get them to mesh also apple isn't really the kind of company that follows the lead of other tech giants it's always done its own thing when it comes to both hardware and software because it knows it has a strong loyal following one example is the fact that iphones use a lightning cable to charge while the vast majority of other phones use usbc this can be an inconvenience for users who just want a universal cable but apple gets away with it because ultimately customers believe in the overall product although apple may be forced to change that soon following a new european union mandate you can check out my video on this for more as big as touchscreens are right now though they're only going to become more ubiquitous with time today's kids are touch native since they grew up in a world where touch screens are basically everywhere from phones to video games to toys even retro gadgets like flip phones are getting the touch screen treatment these days with companies like samsung launching devices like the galaxy z flip 4 and z fold 4. check out my other video on flip phones for more on that eventually trying to market a laptop that doesn't have a touch component will be a tougher sell that philosophy of oh macs have to be one way and ipads have to be another way and it just doesn't make sense that's going to die out as that generation you know moves away and new generations come in where people are less concerned about the dividing line between what's a computer and what's a tablet and what's a phone you know they're not really the phones aren't really phones anymore they're little computers the ipad's not a consumption and movie viewing device it's a creativity device it can be a productivity device it's very computer like so i think it's going to take a while but they are all going to come together especially now that iphones macs and ipads are all built on apple's chips it could be easier to create that sense of unity and shared functionality across apple's devices on a long enough timeline you will eventually have a grand unified theory of apple operating systems where ipads and macs and maybe even phones some other kind of futuristic devices they will all operate in a very unified universal way and you will have to have touch on these devices it's just become such a part of how we interact with everything from you know atms to phones to tablets to you know handheld game console everything is touch-based in the meantime apple and all its biggest fans will probably continue to swear that macbooks are perfect just the way they are without touch screens but what do you think would you prefer a macbook with a touch screen or do you like the way macs function right now without a touch component let us know in the comments and don't forget to hit like and subscribe for more content from cnet\n"