Apple has finally done it. After making the 14-inch MacBook Pro more affordable, Apple has discontinued the last MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. So long, misunderstood and under appreciated OLED strip of dynamically changing interfaces. Touch Bar. October 27, 2016 – October 30, 2023.
Apple introduced the Touch Bar as the replacement for physical function keys in 2016. The technology came with the first USB-C MacBook Pros. A less reliable keyboard, the loss of MagSafe/SD card slot/HDMI, and the transition from USB-A to USB-C started life for the Touch Bar off to a rocky start.
Touch Bar remained a MacBook Pro exclusive despite some appetite for it on the MacBook Air and Mac desktops. The lack of consistency for Touch Bar availability made it less important to support for third-party developers. Apple also never gave it any attention in macOS revisions.
Apple started the process of getting rid of the Touch Bar when it redesigned the MacBook Pro to the current look. 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with Apple silicon instead restored the physical function key row. Apple continued updating the lower-priced 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, adding the M1 and M2 chips.
As of tonight, however, the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is a thing of the past. Want the last Mac with a Touch Bar? The 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 will be available for third-party retailers for a limited time.
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