- Leaker Mark Gurman believes Apple has pushed back the touchscreen MacBook Pro (and the Mac Studio)
- The next-generation laptop likely won’t arrive until early 2027, and chances of a launch this year are fading quickly.
- More than anything, the reaction to the news has made it clear that some Apple laptop fans don’t really want a touchscreen on their MacBook.
Apple’s rumored touchscreen (and OLED) MacBook Pro is now supposed to be delayed until next year for release, and we’re told the launch of the Mac Studio has also been postponed.
MacRumors reported that in Mark Gurman’s latest newsletter for Bloomberg, the prominent Apple watcher said it was possible that both Macs could experience a “slight” lag and, surprise, surprise, it’s due to the RAM crisis.
Apparently, the touchscreen 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro are now expected to arrive in early 2027. Note that this isn’t necessarily a delay as such, because Gurman previously said that these laptops were due to arrive in a time frame from late 2026 to early 2027.
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So that hasn’t changed, but now we’re told that these devices won’t be released until the latter part of that window, and that this is due to the current memory crisis.
The Mac Studio has apparently been delayed until October 2026, while this PC was previously rumored to launch in the middle of this year, according to Gurman. We’ve already seen this month that some Macs are getting thinner in stock, of course, including the Mac Studio.
Analysis: a delicate topic
Clearly, it’s quite believable that Apple will have to readjust some of its release plans due to the RAM crisis. After all, the situation around memory (which includes storage, SSDs inside PCs, and system RAM itself) hasn’t improved lately. (While we have seen small glimmers of optimism, they are just that: very mild in nature.)
Okay, so it’s a relatively minor (and obviously theoretical) delay; but part of what’s been interesting here is the reaction to Gurman’s most recent report on the next-generation touchscreen MacBook Pro (M6).
In particular, there have been a lot of negative or doubtful comments about the need for a touch screen on a MacBook. As one Redditor put it: “Tapping on a Mac is like solving a problem that doesn’t really exist. The trackpad and keyboard are already almost perfect for what macOS is designed for.”
Another in the same thread observed: “The touchscreen PC trend never went anywhere. I’m not sure why Apple would try it now.”
And another Reddit user simply said: “A MacBook Pro with a touchscreen is a bad idea anyway.”
In fact, there’s a lot of skepticism in that Reddit thread (all those comments are from the same one) about what Apple hopes to accomplish with this rumored move to a touchscreen (which will come along with the long-awaited switch to OLED, or so we’re told).
The main concern is that this will lead to changes to macOS to support touch functionality that will be detrimental to the experience on existing (and indeed future) non-touch Macs.
However, if Apple were to do this, assuming the touchscreen MacBook actually arrives, it would probably have to respect the lines already drawn with macOS in terms of its interface. In other words, any touch aspects added to the operating system will be overlaid as useful extras and shortcuts, an added bonus that doesn’t affect the existing platform.
As the original Redditor cited additional notes: “The trackpad already covers most of what people want from touch without disrupting workflow. Touch on a Mac feels more like a nice-to-have than a necessary thing.”
And I think this indicates the route Apple would probably take here: “nice” additions that don’t interfere with existing macOS workflows, because disrupting the latter would be foolish (in a world where most Macs still won’t have touchscreen capabilities, of course). And this lines up pretty much with what we’ve heard Gurman say in the past: namely, that Apple will make macOS adapt to whatever input method you’re using, whether it’s trackpad and keyboard, or touch.
That aside, for those against touchscreens, or more hesitant skeptics, I guess the broader fear is that it’s about where Apple is going in the future. And also that a touchscreen (and OLED technology) will make the MacBook Pro potentially much more expensive, and in this climate of sky-high RAM costs we don’t need more pressure to make already expensive MacBooks even more expensive.
Slight delays aside, it’s pretty clear that Apple will have to tread carefully in how it implements a touchscreen for the MacBook, if this is the direction it’s taken.
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