“If we were to do Multi-Touch on the screen of the notebook, that wouldn’t be enough - then the desktop wouldn’t work that way.” And touch on the desktop, he says, would be a disaster. “We think of the whole platform,” he says. Ultimately, Schiller said this line of thought is 'lowest common denominator thinking.'

But, if the company implemented the same touch screen on a desktop it would 'become absurd,' due to the iMac's main source of user interaction - the keyboard and mouse or trackpad - residing too far away from where users would raise their hand to interact with the screen. Speaking with Backchannel, Schiller has now stated that a multi-touch display on a MacBook 'wouldn't be enough,' because it would begin a divide between MacBook and iMac.

With the new addition of the 'Touch Bar' on the MacBook Pro line, seen by some as a potential step towards a full-on Mac touch screen, many Apple executives have come out saying this isn't the case.

Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, recently continued the company's stance against turning its desktop and laptop devices into touch screen-enabled computers, which some customers believe could be advantageous additions to the macOS platform.

Apple mac touch screen desktop