Federighi on Touch Screen Macs 2018 Edition

Craig Federighi interviewed for Wired

When addressing my question about whether iOS apps moving to macOS is a natural precursor to touchscreen Macs, Federighi told me he’s “not into touchscreens” on PCs and doesn’t anticipate he ever will be. “We really feel that the ergonomics of using a Mac are that your hands are rested on a surface, and that lifting your arm up to poke a screen is a pretty fatiguing thing to do,” he said.

Federighi added that he doesn’t think the touchscreen laptops out there today—which he referred to as “experiments”—have been compelling. “I don’t think we’ve looked at any of the other guys to date and said, how fast can we get there?” (It’s worth noting that Microsoft’s Surface laptop, which has a touchscreen and is considered a top MacBook rival, has received largely positive reviews.)

Federighi’s answer regarding touch screen Macs is the same as it always been. The Mac isn’t touch first and nor is it optimized for it. However, in 2018, I don’t know how he can’t see that the iPad Pro with Smart Keyboard puts the user into the same “fatiguing” situation as the touchscreen laptop “experiments” that he dismisses.

Aside from that, I’m excited to see where Apple takes this.