of course, Apple could design a common software for Macs and iPads.
Yes, it could put touch screens on its notebooks.
And yeah, he could conceive of a terminal, a hybrid that is both a tablet and a laptop.
But that would take the easy way out. At least according to Jony Ive, the longtime head of Apple’s design.
“Do something different is actually relatively easy and relatively fast, and it is tempting,” said Ive. “We take a very different approach in the sense that we really want to offer something better.”
I’ve frankly not excited by the touch screen PC, which is why we will not see such a screen on a Mac. This is also why Apple will not merge not Macs and iOS devices, to design a new product, reported Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi in an exclusive interview in the upstream of the presentation of the latest generation of MacBook Pro.
in other words, the people who have contributed to popularize the touch screen does not believe that this is the way you should interact with a laptop.
instead, they offer what Apple called the Touch Bar – a display multitouch integrated in the upper part of the keyboard of the MacBook Pro. It lights up with menu buttons, faders, control dials and tools that change depending on the application used. In place of the function keys, the Touch Bar automatically suggests terms as you type on the keyboard and you can scroll through photos, or to open your favorite websites in Safari.
“What we wanted to do was bring all of this advanced technology of the screens multitouch and Retina at the place where your hands can make a profit on a laptop,” says Schiller. “As far as we can foresee, there will always be a place for this architecture-based portable computer.”
You can’t touch
Four years earlier, Windows 8 has opened the opportunity for PC manufacturers to produce computers with touch screens. Since, Asus, Dell, HP and others have launched handsets all-in-one, like the Apple iMac but with a touch screen. They also offer laptops that convert to tablets by removing the keyboard.
the evolution of The MacBook Pro, it is a computer thinner and lighter, with faster processors and a touch strip.
With the release last year of Windows 10, the hybrid touch screen is becoming more widespread. But this did not put an end to the decline in shipments of PCS, declining for 8 consecutive quarters : “the longest period of decline in the history of the PC industry”, according to Gartner. This can be explained by the preference of consumers for mobile terminals, to the detriment of computers.
“The momentum in favour of mobility is detrimental to the sales of PC” considers the analyst Brian Blau. “We have seen quarter after quarter.”
Microsoft says that its Surface Pro with detachable keyboard and stylus for 899 dollars, and its Surface Book to 1499$ have hijacked users of the Mac.
on Wednesday, Microsoft unveiled a new desktop all-in-one baptized Surface Studio. Imagine an iMac, but with a touch screen and support for a stylus.
A week earlier, Microsoft was a growth of the line of terminal Surface of 38% year on year to 926 million dollars. This is a significant increase compared to the stagnation of the incomes of the iPad and 17% decrease in sales of Mac in the last quarter.
But despite this boost, the quarterly sales of the Surface around just one billion dollars, far short of the demand for Apple products. The sales of the iPad exceeds $ 4 billion, and reached $ 5.7 billion for the Mac.
To Brian Hall, the vice-president of marketing terminals, Microsoft, Surface, has conquered buyers in part because Apple has delayed the evolution of its range of MacBook Pro. The last major update dates back to 2012. Microsoft hopes that the high-end Surface Book i7, unveiled Wednesday at 2399 dollars, will attract new users of the MacBook Pro.
“Apple has definitely neglected his clients have not made an update in the next three to four years,” judge Hall. “At this point, Apple makes a really bad service to customers by not having a touch option on a MacBook.”
Apple is in disagreement. Four years earlier, Tim Cook criticized the terminals hybrids describing it as the intersection of a toaster and a refrigerator. But Apple has also launched a new iPad Pro 12.9-inch last year with a detachable keyboard and a stylus, Pencil. The sign that there is for Apple, a market for consumers who want to work on the iPad, and only use it as a hub of entertainment.
The manufacturer has considered the possibility of add touch on Mac, before you give up on the idea of “years and years before,” according to Ive. And this, in part, for reasons of ergonomics. For the leaders of Apple, it does not seem normal to have to tighten the arm to touch the screen. “This was not the right place for it,” consider Ive. “This was not a particularly useful or appropriate application of multitouch.”
Some fans at least, the MacBook share the opinion of Apple. T-pain, first known as a rapper, is also a technophile. It is the user of MacBook Pro for over 10 years, edits his own computers since he was young, and love to try new terminals. This includes laptops, touch-screen under Windows 8 as the Razer Blade.
T-pain considers the touch screen of the laptop as a “barrier” more than anything else. “This is too much”.
When CNet asked him if he would like to see a MacBook with touchscreen, T-pain laughs : “My god, no. No, no, no !”
they Never meet
in Addition to ergonomics, we should mention that MacOS is not a compatible operating system with the touch, even if the last iteration, Sierra, works with Touch Bar. Apple has preserved the separate software, even if a certain degree of convergence allows the OS to interact better, and functions to iOS such as Siri to turn on the Mac.
“What you have seen, it is a ton of shared technology between the two,” says Federighi. “But where we differ is on what is basically the model of user interaction and ergonomics fundamental.”
For this reason – a BONE using the fingers, the other the mouse and keyboard – Apple does not have a project to merge its two operating systems.
“We spent a lot of time to think about this and have come to the conclusion that, in order to make the best of a personal computer, you can’t try to turn MacOS into a iPhone” says Schiller. “Conversely, you can’t turn iOS into a Mac … Then everyone is the best in its field – and we add to one and the other, which makes sense, but without fundamentally changing them.”
of course, never say never with Apple.
Jobs had harshly criticized the tablets 7-inch, declaring the end of 2010 that they were “too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad. In November 2012, Apple eventually launch an iPad Mini of 7.9 inches.
Jobs was also highly critical of the smartphones to the big screen. But in September 2014, Apple introduced the iPhone 6 of 4.7 inches and the iPhone 6 Plus of 5.5 inches. These devices have made Apple the firm the most profitable in the world.
And Jobs made sure that the finger was the only pointer you needed, eight years before Apple only sells Pencil as an accessory to the iPad Pro.
Federighi will not say that MacOS and iOS do not merge ever, but said that as much as he could predict that they will remain distinct, at least 5 to 10 years. “They have very different roles, because these environments are optimized around a core ergonomic,” he says. “Try to deform one into the other comes down to making a compromise.”
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