Mac to the future
Apple is at a turning point with Mac hardware — but just where could it go in the next five or 10 years? Let’s imagine…
Apple is at a turning point with Mac hardware — but where could it go in the next five or 10 years? We imagine what we’d like to see in the world of Mac.
APPLE SILICON HAS changed the game. It’s not Apple’s first big platform change — while it seems silly to include the 6502, the Mac has seen 68000, PowerPC and X86 chips before the M1 — but it is the most significant in, if not the Mac’s lifespan, at least a generation. The ARM64–based Apple silicon is a more flexible and more versatile system–on–a–chip (SoC) processor and, crucially, it’s Apple designed…
If there’s one thing Apple treasures above all else, it’s control over its own platforms. Apple silicon, starting with the M1 chip, gives the company precisely that — an almost entirely closed shop.
The MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini, and most recently, the iMac (p38) have gone the route of the M1. The rumour mill suggests the
Mac Pro (already behind M1 laptops in terms of rendering power) will get its refresh in 2022, with a Mac Pro mini also anticipated. What happens after that? Apple has never been afraid of radical innovation, so why shouldn’t now be the jumping off point for a new generation of Mac hardware? There’s a lot to be learned from the changing direction of the PC, and much to be gained from incorporating mobile innovations.
Let’s dust off the (admittedly rather scuffed) Mac|Life crystal ball and look at what we’d like to see in the world of Mac. Real–world rumors swirl about a future MacBook with a completely non–mechanical keyboard, no scissor or butterfly switches, just a flat expanse of touch–sensitive nothing. This sounds, frankly, like a horrible idea, so let’s start our journey into this imagined future with something better: the MacBook Touch, a laptop which puts fingers first.
The MacBook Touch brings the apparently doomed Touch Bar (we’ll have to wait for the next MacBook Pro to surface to find out if it stays or goes) into the next generation. Apple makes it far larger, perhaps half the height of the keyboard, and gives it contextual interactions for every app, or full customization which gives the cleverly–titled “Genius Bar” a versatility it’s never had before. Perhaps the screen extends on to it in the style of Asus’ ZenBook Pro Duo laptops, offering extra real estate to secondary apps; maybe Apple finds a way to include the iPhone’s 3D Touch functionality, haptics, or even a morphing screen which can include bumps to delineate buttons or windows.
But why stop there? Let’s give the MacBook Touch a proper, full touchscreen; one with fingerprint– resistant glass so you can work effectively without peering through a film of oil. Add full Apple Pencil support, an Apple Brush with a textured and flexible tip for more immersive artwork, and borrow from mid–range convertible Windows
tablets, allowing the screen to be flipped all the way over and set at a customizable angle for sketching and art work. Do the same for the iMac, on a larger scale. Wacom shuts up shop. The game is over.
COST–EFFECTIVE OR ELECTIVE
If we’re taking inspiration from PC tablets, Microsoft’s Surface begs to be borrowed from. So Apple does, taking it to the next level with the MacPad. The base of the unit is a keyboard, battery and discrete graphics combo, ultra thin and probably portless; the screen is an iPad–like tablet device, able to run on its own without the keyboard attached. When it’s loose it can communicate wirelessly with the base to access additional storage. When docked it can pull extra processing power and recharge itself from the guts of the base. Maybe this doesn’t spell the end of the iPad, but offers purchasers a cost–effective upgrade path — pick up a MacBase, and you’ve got yourself a Mac.
The PC market has two worlds that Apple simply doesn’t cater for —the low–end, where underpowered laptops sell in their thousands for peanuts, and (let’s be honest here) the high–end enthusiast market. If Apple wants the Mac to be more populist, it needs to push it everywhere, which is why our imagined future sees Apple entering both markets.
On the first count, the company unleashes the MacBook SE, transferring its success in the low–cost phone game to the Mac. This is a proper MacBook with all the trappings of macOS, running on a fairly minimal Apple silicon platform. There’s less RAM and a last–gen processor, integrated graphics, and a downgraded screen. The whole lot is packaged in bright plastic, in your choice of one of four hip colors, with slightly more squared–off edges but serious university appeal nonetheless. The fanless MacBook SE costs $550, effectively reigniting the flames of the Mac vs PC war; you won’t be able to game on it, but you will at least be able to afford it.
To satisfy those looking for power, a MacBook Pro Max drops. Unlikely, we know, but it’s fatter and heavier
than other MacBooks to make room for a powerful laptop graphics solution and upgradeable components — something even the PC laptop market can’t (or won’t) offer. Apple even diverges from Apple silicon, partnering with AMD to provide an X86 processor, offering game publishers the opportunity to make easy ports from PC without having to refactor titles for a RISC (reduced instruction set computer) CPU, and socketing it to enable owners to switch in an upgrade. At the same time, Apple keeps the M1 (or an M2, or even multiples of them) for compatibility elsewhere. This idea is, we’ll admit, more on the ludicrous side, but it’s not outside the realms of possibility — particularly if Apple transitioned it to a desktop form factor.
DESKTOP DOMINATION
The PC’s big advantage is its openness. At one point in time,
Apple briefly allowed other manufacturers to build third–party Mac compatibles. It didn’t last, and isn’t likely to happen again. But what if Apple could take control of not only its own bespoke hardware but that of third parties too? What if it could, beyond what it already does with the Mac, define an entire anti–PC and dictate its future?
Introducing the Mac Platform. A curated selection of the finest computing components in the world,
licensed from the likes of Nvidia and AMD, guaranteed to work perfectly together, repackaged into premium materials, and each given that Apple aesthetic nudge. An evolution of the Mac Pro ethos, with its gorgeously designed case, custom motherboard, and powerful components taken to the next level. You can bring your own (Apple– certified) graphics card. You can add Apple RAM, Apple storage, switch out your Apple processor. You can treat your Mac as if it were a walled– garden PC.
There’s no reason the Mac Platform would have to stay in a Mac Pro–style case. Apple might sell different cases in different materials, and this same idea could be applied to the next generation of Mac mini, with DIY upgrades made simple and guaranteed to be compatible. And every component is given such a heavy Apple touch that the company brings back that delightful late ’90s transparent plastic to let you see inside. Why not a Mac Slim, a machine like the Mac mini but with four–times the case space, ready for a discrete graphics card? And all of this, of course, heralds the return of the Apple Cinema Display, a glorious 5K OLED that does not go pink around the edges after just a couple of years’ use.
Of course, the alternative — and perhaps more likely — future is that Apple’s new reliance on SoCs leads to completely the opposite outcome, and future Macs abandon the idea of upgradeability altogether. Everything soldered on and tucked away — don’t worry about the hardware, just look at the shiny case! That approach can and does work, but we can always dream.