Apple’s touchscreen MacBooks might also have a Dynamic Island

Apple’s OLED touchscreen MacBook Pros, scheduled to launch this fall, will benefit from Dynamic Island functionality similar to that available on iPhones, according to Bloomberg Marc Gurman. Apple first launched Dynamic Island with the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max as a pill-shaped cutout that can display information and alerts, although the MacBook Pro’s Dynamic Island is “smaller” than what’s available on current iPhones.

The new MacBook Pros, which will be available in 14- and 16-inch screen sizes, otherwise appear “similar” to current models, Gurman says, but Apple will update the Mac’s user interface to make it “dynamic” and work better either by touch or point-and-click. “For example, if users touch a button or control, the interface will pop up a new type of menu around their finger, providing more relevant options for touch controls,” according to Gurman.

Apple has long resisted introducing touchscreens to Macs, with Steve Jobs saying that “touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical” and that touchscreens on a Mac would be “ergonomically terrible” at an event in October 2010 – a few months after Apple released the first iPad. But Apple is now actively promoting the iPad as both a touchscreen tablet and a device you can use with a Mac-like keyboard.

Gurman reported in 2023 that Apple was considering making touchscreen Macs, and it looks like it won’t be long before it becomes a reality. Gurman says the new touchscreen Macs won’t be announced as part of what the company plans to reveal around the time of its scheduled March 4 event. Instead, they are scheduled for release “around the end of 2026.”

Apple also plans to introduce a smaller Dynamic Island on the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18 Pro Max, according to Gurman.