Concept imagines full touch keyboard on the MacBook

Aug 29, 2018 07:00 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft’s Surface lineup currently comprises some of the most advanced 2-in-1s and laptops on the market these days, and many agree that by sticking with a traditional form factor, Apple is missing out on a completely new market.

But while Apple doesn’t even want to bring touchscreens to its MacBook device series, customers do want to see such upgrades being released, and some hope for even more substantial improvements for the next generations.

A concept created by Turkish designer Furkan Kasap envisions how one such improvement would make its way to the MacBook, imagining what Apple’s notebook would look, work, and feel with a full-touch keyboard.

Basically, the concept expands the Touch Bar concept to cover the entire keyboard, replacing physical keys with virtual ones that can serve more than just a single purpose.

Apple not a big fan of touchscreens on laptops

This is actually the number one benefit of such an implementation. A virtual keyboard technically enables more than just a single design and layout, allowing for the keyboard itself to better adapt to each user’s needs and to each app individually.

For example, a music creation apps could turn parts of the keyboard to mixers, while in the case of a photo editor, it could let users easily control the color palette.

Since these are just ideas that aren’t only hard to implement but also extremely expensive, Apple is very unlikely to go down this road and instead stick with a more traditional form factor for the MacBook. The company has already pledged to retain the original design of the MacBook without modern features like touchscreens, explaining that its customers are more interested in the productivity side of the device and less on such capabilities.

However, there’s no doubt that a touch-capable display on the MacBook would be received with much enthusiasm by customers, though it remains to be seen if such an upgrade ever makes it way to mass production.

Via TNW