One of Apple’s more controversial technological features may disappear this year. Many will not miss it

One of Apple’s more controversial technological features may disappear this year. Many will not miss it

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Although the MacBook Pro design has not changed significantly in five years, Apple will eliminate its digital Touch Bar, according to a January memo from Ming-Chi Kuo, a top analyst at Apple at TF International Securities. CNN Business translated the memo from Chinese.

Apple only unveiled the Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro in 2016. It’s a small rectangular OLED touch screen that replaced the row of function keys at the top of the keyboard. The digital interface includes other features such as text prediction and shortcuts. Apple app developers can create software to take advantage of touch screen capabilities.

Apple fans are divided on how they feel about the Touch Bar. Some love it because it is easy to use, but others miss the physical buttons that replaced it.

Kuo’s memo predicts the Touch Bar go away two 2021 MacBook Pro models, a 14-inch laptop and a 16-inch laptop, and that the old physical buttons will return. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

An Apple employee demonstrates the Touch Bar on a new MacBook Pro during a 2016 launch event in Cupertino, California.

Apple may download the Touch Bar due to the mixed reaction from fans, said Carolina Milanesi, technical analyst at research firm Creative Strategies.

“Apple may not have seen that much demand, and of course the extra cost becomes an issue for Apple if it is not seen as value to the user,” Milanesi said. The lower demand also “limited the interest of developers, which in turn limited how useful the bar could be.”

The controversial legacy of the Touch Bar is evident from its launch in 2016.

“When Apple unveiled the Touch Bar for the first time, the reception was pretty polarized,” said Linn Huang, research vice president of devices and exhibits. “Many were confused about what problems it wanted to solve and wondered how developers would integrate it into their software experience.”

Fans eager for a MacBook with touchscreen capabilities are also not happy with the Touch Bar – they expected a full touch screen, Huang said. But loyal fans “find the Touch Bar a great addition to the rumored Apple user experience.”

Milanesi and Huang expect Apple to release a touchscreen MacBook again in the future. “Once that happens, history will remember the Touch Bar as a brief concession between Apple and its loyal fans,” Huang said.

Reflect on the touch bar

Mark “Soldier Knows Best” Watson, a tech-savvy YouTuber with more than 800,000 subscribers, said the Touch Bar was a complete change in something we were all used to. ‘

Although it helped to ‘visually modernize’ the new MacBooks, “Sometimes the uniqueness of the Touch Bar can cause you to make a few keystrokes instead of one like on a traditional keyboard,” he notes.

If Apple had not replaced all physical function tests with the Touch Bar, it might have been less controversial, he said.

In 2019, Apple returned the escape key for the 16-inch MacBook Pro and the 13-inch model in 2020.

Dave “Dave2D” Lee, a tech Youtuber with over 3 million subscribers, wants the Touch Bar gone. It misses tangible function tests such as volume, brightness and media controls that replaced the Touch Bar.

These function tests are probably ‘built into muscle memory’ for some Mac users and the Touch Bar is not nearly as reliable, he said.

“Maybe I’m an old school, but I want them to keep it simple,” he said. “A good keyboard without special tricks. It’s always a winner.”

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