14 DAY TRIAL // Apple launched the new MacBook Pro generation with much fanfare last year, and the Touch Bar available on the high-end configurations was highly praised by the company on several occasions.
But as it turns out, the Touch Bar isn’t the breaking feature that Apple hoped it to be, with a growing of customers rather unimpressed and ready to opt for a MacBook Pro version sans it should that mean a smaller price tag.
Former Apple employee Chuq Von Rospach explained in a blog post that what Apple does right now is force users to live with the Touch Bar, a feature that many don’t even need and like, if they purchase the top MacBook Pro configuration. The highest-end MacBook Pro is not available without the Touch Bar and it goes without saying that Apple is charging extra just for this feature.
Not missing the Touch Bar at all
Rospach explains that Apple should either launch more configurations of the MacBook Pro without the Touch Bar or go all-in on this feature and bring it on the entire mac lineup, including on the iMac and the Mac Pro with a dedicated keyboard featuring it.
“The current laptop line forces users to pay for the Touch Bar on the higher end devices whether they want it or not, and that’s a cost users shouldn’t need to pay for a niche technology without a future,” he writes. “It seems to me Apple fell in love with the technology of the Touch Bar system, which if you dig into it a bit is a stunning piece of engineering, and expected all of us to fall in love with it as well.”
Rospach, who spent 17 years at Apple, explains that he recently made the switch from the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar to an iMac 5K and he didn’t miss Apple’s “killer” feature at all.
“So what’s the future of the Touch Bar? I don’t know. I’m not sure Apple does, either,” he explains. “My bet is on Apple having decided they fell in love with the Touch Bar and lost sight of the fact that Apple sells solutions to problems, not technologies.”