The real thing to keep an eye on in 2018, though, is everyone’s favourite solution in search of a problem: the Touch Bar. By far, the Touch Bar was the biggest deal-breaker with my MacBook Pro 15. As someone who normally types around 120 WPM, I need to know where all the keys — including function keys — are by feel alone. Every time a function-key shortcut is needed, I need to hit Esc, or want to turn up/down brightness or volume, productivity grinds to a halt so I can perform an uncomfortable act of finger twister: click… click… thump. The final insult is the complete lack of feedback you get from the glass strip on your finger. The Touch Bar demands the user stop what they are doing to look at its shiny, colourful glory and appreciate Apple for being so damn clever. I know there are people who argue that they like the Touch Bar, but the bottom line is that it’s a gimmick that slows the user down because Tim Cook is too damn stubborn about touchscreens on PCs.

The thing is, though, is that even Apple knows this. We can determine this by the fact that Apple’s new iMacs and keyboards don’t have a Touch Bar to be found, and the reasoning seems pretty simple: the iMacs and keyboards were designed after the release of the 2016 MacBook Pro line. I presume that after seeing the lukewarm reception of their gimmick, they saw no compelling function or consumer-based argument to justify putting it into their other Mac form-factors. The 2016 MacBooks introduced the Touch Bar, the 2017 MacBooks kept it — “maybe people just need more time to love it?” they thought — and it’s time for Apple to make a decision about how they are going to deal with their mistakes.

A few things could happen in 2018: First, if Apple keeps the Touch Bar in place of the function keys, I think it marks a point of no return for the MacBook line. It would show that Apple is not only doubling-down on a failed gimmick, but they are fine with it being a fringe feature of their mobile computers, because (perhaps) they don’t see much of a future in the MacBook line anyway. Second, they might get rid of it and go back to having the function keys. This outcome is perhaps the most doubtful because it would essentially be Apple announcing to the world that they were wrong, but we can dream. Finally, perhaps the least objectionable option might be to put the Fn row back in the laptop while keeping the Touch Bar above it for extra functionality.

Apple needs to take care of the reliability issues with their butterfly keyboard for simple, short-term reasons, but I think what they do with the Touch Bar will ultimately have more far-reaching effects. Will Apple learn from their mistakes and refocus the MacBook line, or will they bet the farm on unnecessary shiny bells and whistles to further commodify the MacBook line? This year will be the year to find out.