Apple Watch has a crown and a touch screen. iPad Pros have keyboards, pens, and a touch screen. Apple TV has directional and trackpad input. All support voice input. All work fine with basically the same UI toolkit.

Interesting point. I am mainly biased toward caring about desktops and laptops, I don't use any of those devices.

It’s just the UI. Most of the underlying logic code and magic sauce can stay the same I bet.

Given that Apple seems to be following more and more industry trends, maybe touchscreen Macs are coming?

Also, they officially support a keyboard for iPad Pro. With recent multitasking updates for iPad and considering positive reviews for the keyboard, the Pro seems to be a serious contender for laptop replacement.

Recently got a Pro 10.5, and it's a fantastic device — seriously considering a keyboard for office work.

Does any one see the prospect of Xcode on iPad pro?

This is my metric. Can I develop iOS apps using iOS? Until then, I'm sticking to Mac.

(Actually, I'm a web developer, so what I really would need is full dev tools on iOS Safari.)

iOS has supported keyboards for a very long time. right back to when they first sold their 30-pin to USB "camera" adapter. You could definitely plug in a keyboard and use it.

Not just that, the first iPad had an official "keyboard dock" accessory - a desktop-style keyboard with a built-in iPad stand and 30-pin connector:

https://www.cnet.com/products/apple-ipad-keyboard-dock-serie...

(For the record, this was in 2010, the same year the camera adapter you mentioned was released, as well as OS support for Bluetooth keyboards.)

E.g. - this comment, via a Bluetooth keyboard on my iPad mini 2 :-)

Missing is the ability to use a mouse to supplement touch, which I could do on my Android tablet before it died.

Yep, and pairing a Bluetooth keyboard would work as well! I knew many people who carried around an iPad and a Magic Keyboard to use together.

Unlikely. Apple likely hasn’t solved the problem that the form factor for touchscreen desktops suck.

This is about making development easier for enterprise developers.

Why do touchscreen desktops suck? I'd be happy to touch the reply button below this input form instead of using the touchpad to move the cursor to there and click.

In other cases I'd use the touchpad (the cursor is more fine grained than my finger) but some touchscreen / some touchpad seems fine to me.

Fingerprints on a matte screen? Maybe that's a problem.

The people that have responded to you seem to be focusing on using touchscreen in a desktop-only/work-only environment, but as an owner of a Surface Book I think that's wrong. When I use my Surface Book for work I very rarely touch the touchscreen because, like @fauigerzigerk said, shoulder pain would become a real problem. Instead, when work is over I detach the keyboard, turn the device into a tablet, and switch myself over to "consumer mode". That's when I use the touchscreen; that's when I break out the pen and start drawing; that's when I switch over to using Windows Store apps because they're built for touchscreen; that's when I switch open Edge because it supports touch gestures; etc.

Of course that would assume Apple builds a device that can detach its keyboard or operate as a 2-in-1 where the screen folds over. I agree that as it's designed right now, a Macbook with a touchscreen would be a bad user experience.

This is just an anecdote, but when my last Windows laptop died in October I looked really hard at buying a Macbook and eventually decided I couldn't live without the touchscreen. Pardon the pun, but being able to touch anything on my screen like I can do on a phone just feels right.

(However, I will say that my default work setup [0] is to flip the screen over, place it on my laptop stand and use it as a second monitor - a decent configuration for annotating documents or taking notes with the pen.)

[0] https://i.imgur.com/sDNYoDF.jpg

Fingerprints is a problem, but a more minor one. Pulling your hand off the more accurate touchpad is another one. Screen weight/balance is another one, you want a really stiff screen for touching, but not so stiff you can't easily move it.

I'd say one of my biggest peeves is tap area sizes. Your fingers need much bigger areas to tap in accurately, so an efficient touch UI needs way more space for tap areas. But that space is wasted when you are using a mouse/touchpad cursor.

I think Apples stance that the additional costs and impediments aren't worth the minor gains has been reasonable. But it's probably close. I wouldn't be shocked if they changed their minds on their next round of laptops.

Shoulder pain will be an issue for people using it all day long. I know I can't lift my hand up to the screen hundereds of times per day.

On the other hand, Windows Store apps have "required"(loosely) that all interface works with both mice+keyboard and touchscreen. So it's not impossible, just yeah, a lot of work.

My laptop has a touchscreen. I didn't even realize until I needed to clean it. Maybe they'll require all new macOS screens to be touchscreens?

I think Apple has explicitly eschewed touchscreens on any screen that is always held vertically (i.e., laptop and desktops). They said usability studies consistently found people's arms get tired.

Well, it’s been so useful to you....

Yeah but my nieces and nephews are practically touchscreen only users, so maybe for them. I'm personally holding out for decent voice controlled UI - should be any year now.

This highlights something incredibly important. There's a very stark age line in people using touch screens by default. I TA an intro CS course, and I've noticed the line creep. It's somewhere between those born in 1998 and 2002. They just all like touch screens better because that's what they are used to.

I haven't even graduated and am feeling like a greybeard when it comes to this area. I have to wonder if it's simply that we were trained to be mouse by default...

It's difficult to argue that touchscreen isn't more natural in some sense. I've seen a 2 year old competently use an iPad to access media and play simple games. Programming seems to require a more sophisticated UI though, so I worry that touchscreen people will be even less inclined than usual to hack on internals, etc.

I guess this also helps explain why the new Mac Pros are becoming giant iPads, away from the old openable cheese grater design.

iMac Pro. We don't know the form factor for the new Mac Pro yet, but all signs are encouraging that it'll be expandable.

Unlike older iMacs?

Good point - it's even more obvious

https://static.highsnobiety.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/t...