Apple released its first laptop with a touchscreen on Wednesday, a new MacBook Pro built around an OLED display, the M5 Pro chip, and macOS.
Apple says the machine is lighter than its current pro laptops, and the OLED display offers more brightness, better colors, and wider viewing angles. It runs macOS, not a version of the iPhone or iPad software.
"Yes, for the very first time, we are bringing touch to the Mac."
John Ternus, Apple
It's the third major product launch under Ternus, who took over as chief executive and has pushed a faster hardware cadence. He was credited with leading the move of Macs onto Apple's own chips.
The PC market is in one of its worst slumps
Total PC shipments dropped 20% year over year in the third quarter, according to market researcher IDC, while Apple's own shipments fell 11%.
Overall laptop shipments are expected to be down 11% for the full year. Analysts point to an AI-driven global shortage of memory, which has pushed laptop prices up and dented demand.
Apple Shipments Fell Less Than the Overall PC Market
Q3 2026 shipments, year-over-year change, %
Bar chart. Change (%). Total PC: Shipment Change (%) -20%. Apple: Shipment Change (%) -11%.
Apple hasn't escaped it. Nearly all Macs got price increases this year, including a $300 bump on the Mac Mini introduced in August. Cook warned this summer that memory prices were unsustainable.
Small revenue, big strategy
Apple reported $10.35B in Mac sales in the most recent quarter, just under 10% of total revenue.
The Mac remains the only supported platform for building iPhone apps, which keeps developers locked in. Apple has been pitching its chip and memory design as the best home for AI models that run on the device instead of the cloud.
Touch may matter less as a feature than as a signal. Only 17% of notebook PCs shipped globally this year will have touchscreens, per IDC data, and touch models carry a slightly lower average selling price than non-touch notebooks.
IDC VP for worldwide device trackers Ryan Reith framed the move as a software story, calling it one more thing that can draw developers in.
The new laptops cap a stretch that included a folding iPhone called Duo in September, a smart speaker with a display, an iPad Mini starting at $699, and M6 chip upgrades for the iMac and MacBook Pro this week. The test is whether touch pulls buyers back into a shrinking, pricier laptop market.
