Touchscreen MacBook Pro now predicted for late 2026
appleinsider.com
By: WILLIAM GALLAGHER
SEPTEMBER 17, 2025 6:56 AM EDT
Rumors of Apple being about to launch a touchscreen MacBook Pro go back at least as many years as Apple itself has publicly denied it will ever do it. Now according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is doing it -- and he thinks he knows why.
Writing on Twitter, Kuo says that adding a touchscreen would blur the line between a MacBook and an iPad, and that is the idea.
The full tweet says that this shift "appears to reflect Apple's long-term observation of iPad user behavior, indicating that in certain scenarios, touch controls can enhance both productivity and the overall user experience."
Kuo now almost never cites any sources, nor distinguishes between information received from the supply chain versus his personal predictions. So he doesn't back up this report of Apple's position, but separately he has now posted a claim detailing how how accurate he says he has been in recent years.
If he is correct this time, it does make a significant change from Apple's previous statements.
"We really feel that the ergonomics of using a Macare that your hands are rested on a surface, and that lifting your arm up to poke a screen is a pretty fatiguing thing to do," Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering said in 2018. "I don't think we've looked at any of the other guys to date and said, how fast can we get there?"
Kuo states that the OLED MacBook Pro that has been predicted for late 2026 will be the first to gain the touchscreen display. He says that the more affordable MacBook, powered by an iPhoneprocessor, will not get it.
That seems obvious for what is presumed to be a budget-focused MacBook. However, Kuo says that the second generation of this, predicted for 2027, might yet add touch support.
Despite Apple's public statements against touchscreens, the company has been researching the possibility for many years. Its multiple patents and patent applications around the topic do show that it hasn't let go of the idea of making a touchscreen MacBook Pro.
Recently it was claimed that Apple will be bringing out an M5 MacBook Pro by spring 2026, but M6 models will follow later that year or early in 2027. It's believed that the M6 models will specifically be aimed at changing the minds of users who have previously not felt the need to upgrade. |
