

“Our instincts were that it didn’t, but, what the heck, we could be wrong-so our teams worked on that for a number of times over the years. Jony Ive said last year that Apple had rejected a touchscreen Mac ‘many, many years ago.’ Phil Schiller later expanded on this, saying that Apple had actually tried it. It doesn’t work, it’s ergonomically terrible.” It gives great demo, but after a short period of time you start to fatigue, and after an extended period of time your arm wants to fall off. “Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical. Steve Jobs first explained why Apple had rejected the idea of a touchscreen Mac. Second, Apple has not only consistently rejected the idea of a touchscreen Mac, but it has continued to do so almost to the present day.īack in 2017, I summarised Apple’s position after extensive tests. Taking Apple into an entirely new product category could justify his leadership, so both the Apple Car and Apple Glasses are plausible contenders, but not a touchscreen Mac. You don’t move from SVP of all hardware engineering to work on a single project which would be significant but not a game-changer for the company. First, that would be way too small a role for Riccio. It wouldn’t just be a MacBook that you can touch, but something entirely new. A MacBook that’s as thin as an iPad but as powerful as an M1 MacBook Air would be an instant gamechanger for both product lines and would pave the way for another 10 years of relevancy.
#MAKE A MAC TOUCH SCREEN FULL#
Now that the Mac transition is in full swing and will likely be all but completed by the end of 2021, Apple can turn its attention to the next big thing: a touchscreen Mac. And what we really love doing is making it better.”Īnd I think that’s exactly what he’s going to be doing in his new role at Apple. In one of his few appearances on a public stage, Riccio had this to say when the 27-inch 5K iMac debuted in 2014: “The Mac enables people to do amazing things and for many people, it’s the most important creative tool that they use. In addition to the iPad, Riccio also played a big role in the evolution of the Mac’s display. Rather, I think Riccio’s new project is a lot closer to the type of work he excels at making: screens. While it’s natural to think that Riccio will be working on the Apple Car or Apple Glass, it’s likely that those teams are already well on their way and equally likely that Riccio has had a hand in building them. The latest angle on it is that this is Dan Riccio’s secretive new role … If there’s one topic that won’t go away no matter how many times Apple dismisses it, it’s the idea of a touchscreen Mac.
