Apple launched its first touchscreen MacBook Pro on Wednesday, featuring M5 chips and a new hinge. Prices start at ₹3,49,900 in India, with deliveries beginning November 9. This follows the October 23 release of the iPhone Duo, Apple’s first foldable phone. John Ternus is now leading these major hardware changes.

Apple on Wednesday launched its first touchscreen Mac. The new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display comes in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes, runs on M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, and supports touch for the first time on a Mac.

In India, the 14-inch model starts at ₹3,49,900 and the 16-inch at ₹4,09,900. M5 Max versions go up to ₹5,89,900. Pre-orders are open and deliveries in India begin November 9.

The tandem OLED display offers up to 2,000 nits peak brightness and a refresh rate from 10Hz to 120Hz.

Apple has also brought the iPhone's Dynamic Island to the Mac, and built a new hinge that keeps the screen steady when touched. The current mini-LED MacBook Pros stay on sale for now.

A day earlier, Apple refreshed the regular 14-inch MacBook Pro and the iMac with its M6 chip.

The launch comes 2 months after John Ternus took over from Tim Cook on September 1. Ternus is an Apple insider. He joined the product design team in 2001, worked under Steve Jobs, and ran hardware engineering before getting the top job.

The Jobs Question

A touchscreen Mac is something Apple's leadership resisted for years. In 2010, Jobs argued that touching an upright screen tires the arm and called the idea "ergonomically terrible." Cook was also dismissive. Apple's closest attempt was the Touch Bar, a thin touch strip it added to the MacBook Pro in 2016 and later removed.

The ergonomic problem Jobs described has not changed. A laptop screen is still vertical, and most users will still rely on the keyboard and trackpad. Apple is pitching the machine to creative professionals in video, photo and music production.

Whether touch justifies a ₹3.5 lakh starting price depends on how well macOS apps work under a finger, and that has only been shown in Apple's demos so far.

The Foldable Precedent

That matters because of how Apple's other big launch has gone. The iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable, went on sale in India on October 23 at ₹2,99,900 for 256GB, going up to ₹4,49,900 for 2TB. It is the most expensive iPhone Apple has sold, and in India it costs nearly 58% more than the converted US price.

Reviewers have praised the hinge and the inner display, but apps have lagged. Apps that haven't been updated run in a smaller window with black bars on either side of the 7.6-inch inner screen. Gmail, Google Maps and Uber were among those not optimised at launch. Apple has added a "Made for iPhone Duo" badge on the App Store to flag apps that are ready.

Within hours of the Duo going on sale, owners began posting photos and videos of inner screens that had cracked down the middle, along the hinge. Many showed a bright line of pixels across the display. One buyer told CBS News the screen cracked before he had finished setting up the phone. Another said she heard a loud pop and the screen cracked, less than 24 hours after she bought it.

iFixit's teardown pointed to a possible cause. The curved fold of the screen sits close to the hinge's centre support bar, which may create a stress point near where the breaks are showing up.

Apple has acknowledged the problem. In a statement, the company said it is aware of an issue affecting the inner display on "a small number" of iPhone Duo units, and that affected users should contact AppleCare for a replacement. Owners do not need AppleCare+ to get a replacement for this issue. Apple has not said what is causing the cracks or how many phones are affected.

Apple also used the statement to highlight demand, saying early response to the Duo has been very positive and that developers are quickly updating their apps. Separately, Apple has reportedly raised Duo orders with suppliers by more than 40%.

The cracks add to other durability questions. In a JerryRigEverything bend test, the inner display was left with permanent green lines. Other endurance tests found the hinge held up after thousands of folds, though the crease got deeper with repeated use.

What it Says About Ternus

Ternus is a hardware engineer, and both launches lead with hardware. In both cases Apple has shipped the device first and left developers to catch up. Apple has acknowledged the Duo's screen issue, but has not explained its cause. For a CEO who learnt the job under Jobs, the 2 biggest products of his first months are a phone that apps aren't ready for and a Mac that Jobs argued against.