'It doesn't work': Steve Jobs on why there was never a touchscreen MacBook and why I think he'd totally love what's coming next

If the rumors are true, next week could mark the introduction of the first-ever touchscreen MacBooks .

That's a Mac laptop with a touchscreen.

People will probably embrace them and, no, I don't think their arms will fall off.

Steve Jobs famously hated the concept of a touchscreen MacBook.

During an October 2010 product launch, he famously dismantled the notion : "You know, the first thing you think about is this [he gestured toward the image of someone reading out to touch a MacBook screen].

Right, we thought about this years ago.

We've done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn't work.

Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical.

It gives a great demo, but after a short period of time you start to fatigue, and after an extended period of time your arm wants to fall off; it doesn't work.

It's ergonomically terrible.

Touch surfaces want to be horizontal, hence touchpads for a notebook.

That's why we've perfected our multi-touch trackpads over the years." In short: It doesn't work Touch demands horizontal screens Your arm gets tired Your arm falls off Jobs' comments came just 10 months after he unveiled the original iPad, which did have a sort of oddball keyboard accessory that put your hands way too close to the display, and two years before Microsoft introduced its first Surface Pro computers , which were basically tablets with kickstands and detachable keyboards.

Still, Jobs drew a line in the sand, and for more than a decade, Apple toed that line.

Even when Apple seemed to split the difference with the Touch Bar on the 2016 MacBook Pro , Apple executives insisted a touchscreen was not the right move for Apple's popular line of MacBooks.