(Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)
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Apple's rumored OLED MacBook Pro could include another first: a touch screen.
As analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports, the laptop will enter mass production by late 2026 and have a display panel made using on-cell touch technology, "further blurring the line with the iPad."
The rumor is consistent with a June report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who said that future iPads and Macs would have OLED touch screens and that, by 2028, Apple would merge both products to create a 19-inch foldable tablet.
Rumors about touch-screen Macs surface from time to time. In 2023, Gurman reported that Apple was preparing to launch one by 2025; will we see one in the next few months?
Apple has traditionally opposed touch-screen Macs. In 2010, co-founder Steve Jobs said touch screens work best when held horizontally and described the vertical concept as "ergonomically terrible." They give "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. It doesn't work. It's ergonomically terrible. Touch surfaces want to be horizontal," Jobs said at the time.
For years, other Apple execs echoed those sentiments. But things have changed. Many more laptops are now 2-in-1 laptop-tablet hybrids or have touch screens.
Apple also seems to be embracing the idea of letting users navigate a device using both touch and a keyboard. Its iPadOS 26, for instance, borrows elements from macOS and takes Apple's tablet a lot closer to its laptop.
Kuo, meanwhile, also confirmed rumors of a Mac powered by an iPhone chip. That product will enter mass production later this year, but it's not expected to have a touch screen until the second generation.