{"id":337724,"date":"2017-04-05T23:29:46","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T15:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2017\/04\/05\/apple-no-plans-for-touchscreen-or-arm-based-macs\/"},"modified":"2017-04-05T23:29:46","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T15:29:46","slug":"apple-says-it-has-no-plans-for-solely-arm-based-or-touchscreen-macs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/apple-says-it-has-no-plans-for-solely-arm-based-or-touchscreen-macs\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Says It Has No Plans for Solely ARM-Based or Touchscreen Macs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple recently invited a small group of reporters to Cupertino for a roundtable discussion about the Mac, and while the conversation was primarily focused on the Mac Pro<\/a>, Apple also revealed that it has no plans for Macs with touchscreens or Macs powered solely by ARM chips, rather than Intel processors, per Axios<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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The company has no plans for touchscreen Macs, or for machines powered solely by the kind of ARM processors used in the iPhone and iPad<\/a>. However, executives left open the possibility ARM chips could play a broader role as companion processors, something that showed up first with the T1 processor that powers the Touch Bar in the new MacBook<\/a> Pro.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller<\/a> aptly said “no” when asked about the prospect of touchscreen Macs, according to TechCrunch<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n

It’s worth noting that, when asked about a touch display here, in the context of efforts like Microsoft’s Surface Studio, Schiller replies “No.”<\/p>\n

“That’s a whole other long discussion we can get into, but suffice it to say, it’s not a big need of the Mac Pro<\/a> customers that we\u2019re trying to address,” he says. “You mentioned again how we’re talking about both the iMac<\/a> and MacBook \u2014 I do think that we have a two-prong desktop strategy with both iMac and Mac Pro, we think are each going to be important for pro desktops.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It’s not the first time that Schiller or Apple have dismissed the idea of a touchscreen Mac. In November, he said that Apple has tested a touchscreen Mac<\/a> and “absolutely come away with the belief that it isn’t the right thing to do.” He even went as far as calling the idea of a touchscreen iMac “absurd.”<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cCan you imagine a 27-inch iMac where you have to reach over the air to try to touch and do things? That becomes absurd.\u201d He also explains that such a move would mean totally redesigning the menu bar for fingers, in a way that would ruin the experience for those using pointer devices like the touch or mouse. \u201cYou can\u2019t optimize for both,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s the lowest common denominator thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Apple design chief Jony Ive has likewise said<\/a> that a touchscreen Mac would “not be a particularly useful or appropriate application of Multi-Touch.”<\/p>\n

\"\"
For now, it appears the closest we will get to a touchscreen or ARM-based Mac is the latest MacBook Pro, which has a Touch Bar powered by an ARM-based T1 chip<\/a> as a companion processor. Apple has said one thing and later reversed course in the past, however, so the company’s roadmap could change in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple recently invited a small group of reporters to Cupertino for a roundtable discussion about the Mac, and while the conversation was primarily focused on the Mac Pro<\/a>, Apple also revealed that it has no plans for Macs with touchscreens or Macs powered solely by ARM chips, rather than Intel processors, per Axios<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The company has no plans for touchscreen Macs, or for machines powered solely by the kind of ARM processors used in the iPhone and iPad<\/a>. However, executives left open the possibility ARM chips could play a broader role as companion processors, something that showed up first with the T1 processor that powers the Touch Bar in the new MacBook<\/a> Pro<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller<\/a> aptly said “no” when asked about the prospect of touchscreen Macs, according to TechCrunch<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

It’s worth noting that, when asked about a touch display here, in the context of efforts like Microsoft’s Surface Studio, Schiller replies “No.”<\/p>\n

“That’s a whole other long discussion we can get into, but suffice it to say, it’s not a big need of the Mac Pro<\/a> customers that we\u2019re trying to address,” he says. “You mentioned again how we’re talking about both the iMac<\/a> and MacBook \u2014 I do think that we have a two-prong desktop strategy with both iMac and Mac Pro, we think are each going to be important for pro desktops.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s not the first time that Schiller or Apple have dismissed the idea of a touchscreen Mac. In November, he said that Apple has tested a touchscreen Mac<\/a> and “absolutely come away with the belief that it isn’t the right thing to do.” He even went as far as calling the idea of a touchscreen iMac “absurd.”<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you imagine a 27-inch iMac where you have to reach over the air to try to touch and do things? That becomes absurd.\u201d He also explains that such a move would mean totally redesigning the menu bar for fingers, in a way that would ruin the experience for those using pointer devices like the touch or mouse. \u201cYou can\u2019t optimize for both,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s the lowest common denominator thinking.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apple design chief Jony Ive has likewise said<\/a> that a touchscreen Mac would “not be a particularly useful or appropriate application of Multi-Touch.”<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n
\nFor now, it appears the closest we will get to a touchscreen or ARM-based Mac is the latest MacBook Pro, which has a Touch Bar powered by an ARM-based T1 chip<\/a> as a companion processor. Apple has said one thing and later reversed course in the past, however, so the company’s roadmap could change in the future.
Discuss this article<\/a> in our forums<\/p>\n

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\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[68,69,59,26],"class_list":["post-337724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-apple","tag-macrumors","tag-media","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}