4 ms·

It has always been artificial market segmentation. Their message is clear: don't buy apple if you want a laptop with a touchscreen. Apple will only sell you o

It has always been artificial market segmentation. Their message is clear: don't buy apple if you want a laptop with a touchscreen. Apple will only sell you oversized phones and regular laptops.

AlexandrB 4y ago
And don't buy a Windows laptop if you want a laptop without a touchscreen because the UI will be designed for touch even if you only use a mouse. Although macOS is unfortunately trending in this direction also.
- guhidalg 4y ago
  Complain to the developers? Windows will tell applications if they're in laptop or tablet mode, if you don't like tablet mode then don't use it.
mrweasel 4y ago
> don't buy apple if you want a laptop with a touchscreen Keep buying Apple laptops, got it. I know that a large number of people keep asking for laptop with touchscreen, but this is one design decision where I whole heartedly with Apple. Touchscreen on laptops make no sense. The use case for a touchscreen is significantly different from a laptop that it makes sense to have two classes of devices. Then again, I don't really get the large number of iPads sold either. It seems like an extremely niche devices which would only find a use case in certain types of industry.
- ryanmcbride 4y ago
  Yeah I've never used a laptop and wished I could touch the screen to do something. I don't want to lift my hands off my desk to move something around on the screen. I might not be a good representation though because I don't even like moving my hand off the keyboard to use the mouse
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    Touchscreens on a laptop are kinda silly, especially if it isn't convertible. I will say though, I use touchscreen gestures to navigate my desktops pretty frequently. Blindly reaching for a three-finger swipe feels a lot more natural than pausing to look down at my Touch Bar and figure out what the hell I want to press...
    - mrweasel 4y ago
      I use the magic trackpad, that feels more natural that touching the screen. 95% of the time my laptop is docker to a USB-C monitor, so having a touchscreen would be a little weird. For professional use, I'd guess that most people have a larger monitor hooked up anyway. For a touchscreen to make sense, my monitor would need to be touch as well. The issue with the Touch Bar is the same, that's not a professional feature, or even particular useful. Apple knows this, because you can't buy a magic keyboard with the Touch Bar. If it was useful, the Touch Bar would also appear on the those and it doesn't. I'd love to know how many MacBook Pros are sold with and without the Touch Bar.
      - smoldesu 4y ago
        Trackpad gestures are great too, I use my Magic Trackpad 2 on my Linux desktop where I don't have any touchscreens. Still though, I think the display as a multitouch surface shouldn't be overlooked. It's pretty much perfect for gesturing.
      - filoleg 4y ago
        The best part is that those trackpad gestures translate almost 1:1 from macOS to iPadOS. And you can use magic trackpad with iPad too (although it makes more sense for me personally to use the trackpad built into the iPad magic keyboard case). I havent really used iPad shortcuts before all that much, but once i accidentally triggered a few of them after using it with a trackpad due to the muscle memory from macOS, it all clicked perfectly.
- BoorishBears 4y ago
  I've had a Macbook with a touchscreen I installed OS X on my old Asus Zenbook and the touchscreen still functioned... but yeah not once did I ever think "wow I want to apply my fingers to my laptop screen instead of using the large precise touch surface within easier reach" besides for novelty
noveltyaccount 4y ago
I'm always surprised at the pushback from people when the topic of touchscreen laptops comes up. I love mine, even if I don't use it a ton. It's a collection of delightful little things: a modal dialog box that I just reach up and tap Okay. Resting four fingers on the back of the display and using a thumb to scroll a web page. Any situation (like on an airplane) where space is limited, reaching for the screen can be better than using a touchpad. I don't use it instead of mouse/touchpad, but I use it as an additional input, and again, it's delightful. Apple could let customers launch iPad apps on their Macs and use a touchscreen. But they don't, because they'd rather sell you two devices. It's silly, artificial market segmentation.

It has always been artificial market segmentation. Their message is clear: don't buy apple if you want a laptop with a touchscreen. Apple will only sell you oversized phones and regular laptops.

AlexandrB 4y ago

And don't buy a Windows laptop if you want a laptop without a touchscreen because the UI will be designed for touch even if you only use a mouse. Although macOS is unfortunately trending in this direction also.

guhidalg 4y ago
Complain to the developers? Windows will tell applications if they're in laptop or tablet mode, if you don't like tablet mode then don't use it.

mrweasel 4y ago

> don't buy apple if you want a laptop with a touchscreen Keep buying Apple laptops, got it. I know that a large number of people keep asking for laptop with touchscreen, but this is one design decision where I whole heartedly with Apple. Touchscreen on laptops make no sense. The use case for a touchscreen is significantly different from a laptop that it makes sense to have two classes of devices. Then again, I don't really get the large number of iPads sold either. It seems like an extremely niche devices which would only find a use case in certain types of industry.

ryanmcbride 4y ago
Yeah I've never used a laptop and wished I could touch the screen to do something. I don't want to lift my hands off my desk to move something around on the screen. I might not be a good representation though because I don't even like moving my hand off the keyboard to use the mouse
- smoldesu 4y ago
  Touchscreens on a laptop are kinda silly, especially if it isn't convertible. I will say though, I use touchscreen gestures to navigate my desktops pretty frequently. Blindly reaching for a three-finger swipe feels a lot more natural than pausing to look down at my Touch Bar and figure out what the hell I want to press...
  - mrweasel 4y ago
    I use the magic trackpad, that feels more natural that touching the screen. 95% of the time my laptop is docker to a USB-C monitor, so having a touchscreen would be a little weird. For professional use, I'd guess that most people have a larger monitor hooked up anyway. For a touchscreen to make sense, my monitor would need to be touch as well. The issue with the Touch Bar is the same, that's not a professional feature, or even particular useful. Apple knows this, because you can't buy a magic keyboard with the Touch Bar. If it was useful, the Touch Bar would also appear on the those and it doesn't. I'd love to know how many MacBook Pros are sold with and without the Touch Bar.
    - smoldesu 4y ago
      Trackpad gestures are great too, I use my Magic Trackpad 2 on my Linux desktop where I don't have any touchscreens. Still though, I think the display as a multitouch surface shouldn't be overlooked. It's pretty much perfect for gesturing.
    - filoleg 4y ago
      The best part is that those trackpad gestures translate almost 1:1 from macOS to iPadOS. And you can use magic trackpad with iPad too (although it makes more sense for me personally to use the trackpad built into the iPad magic keyboard case). I havent really used iPad shortcuts before all that much, but once i accidentally triggered a few of them after using it with a trackpad due to the muscle memory from macOS, it all clicked perfectly.
BoorishBears 4y ago
I've had a Macbook with a touchscreen I installed OS X on my old Asus Zenbook and the touchscreen still functioned... but yeah not once did I ever think "wow I want to apply my fingers to my laptop screen instead of using the large precise touch surface within easier reach" besides for novelty

noveltyaccount 4y ago

I'm always surprised at the pushback from people when the topic of touchscreen laptops comes up. I love mine, even if I don't use it a ton. It's a collection of delightful little things: a modal dialog box that I just reach up and tap Okay. Resting four fingers on the back of the display and using a thumb to scroll a web page. Any situation (like on an airplane) where space is limited, reaching for the screen can be better than using a touchpad. I don't use it instead of mouse/touchpad, but I use it as an additional input, and again, it's delightful. Apple could let customers launch iPad apps on their Macs and use a touchscreen. But they don't, because they'd rather sell you two devices. It's silly, artificial market segmentation.