In a world where multitouch displays are just about everywhere, it’s easy to forget that when Apple introduced the technology on the original iPhone in 2007 it was seen as a major advance. Much like the retina display that would come along a few years later, multitouch sparked rumors about just what Apple would do with this remarkable new technology next. Before long, there were rumors of touchscreen iMacs and MacBooks.
Of course, Apple did eventually release a multitouch device with a larger screen than the iPhone: the iPad. For better or worse, though, the iPad did not put rumors of an iMac Touch or MacBook Touch to rest. Eventually Steve Jobs addressed the rumors (almost) directly. At the event where he introduced OS X Lion in October 2010, he said that Apple had looked into touchscreen laptops and desktops, and found the technology impractical. “Touch screens” he famously said, “don’t want to be vertical.”
So much for touchscreen iMacs and MacBooks, right? Well, not exactly. Jobs’s pronouncement that such devices were “ergonomically terrible” hasn’t stopped people from speculating on what they might look like if Apple did ever decide to make them. The concept video below shows off what a MacBook Touch might look like. Check it out, then let us know what you think in the comments.
