Apple’s MacBook lineup could soon resemble a restaurant menu with 17 different ways to order a burger. The company is expanding its laptop range across more price points, performance levels, and display technologies, with OLED touchscreens potentially bringing another premium tier into the mix. That’s great news for buyers who want options, but Apple’s product lineup could use a little decluttering before things get silly.
Apple’s MacBook lineup has a growing identity problem
As Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman notes, Apple’s expanding Mac lineup could eventually force the company to rethink how it separates its entry-level, professional, and premium touchscreen models. The lineup could eventually include the MacBook Neo, 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models, an entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro, higher-performance 14-inch and 16-inch Pros, and premium MacBook Pros with OLED touchscreens. That’s a lot of laptops, especially when some of them start looking like different flavours of the same machine.
Shikhar Mehrotra / Digital Trends
The biggest head-scratcher is the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro with a standard M-series chip. Functionally, it isn’t all that different from a pricier MacBook Air, but the Pro branding carries weight with buyers. Its popularity also means Apple has little reason to kill it anytime soon. With a redesigned model reportedly planned for next year, and another version expected to retain the current design, this particular MacBook isn’t going anywhere just yet.
Touchscreens could eventually unite Apple’s Macs
Of course, Apple could eventually simplify things by merging its regular and touchscreen MacBook Pro lines. It has taken a similar approach before, initially keeping Retina MacBook Pros at the high end before consolidating the lineup as the technology became cheaper. If OLED touchscreens prove popular, the same playbook could apply again. And the touchscreen experiment might not stop at laptops. Apple is reportedly testing OLED displays for future MacBook Air and iMac models, although those upgrades aren’t imminent. For now, refreshed non-OLED versions are expected to arrive first.
Shikhar Mehrotra / Digital Trends
If everything goes well, the long-term future could see touchscreens spread across practically every Mac with a display. That would be a pretty big shift for a company that has spent years insisting Macs work best without touch. But first, Apple might want to figure out how many MacBook Pros it actually needs.
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