There was a time (not so long ago) when the simple mention of an Apple product felt like a tenet of technological dogma. The brand did more than just sell hardware, it dictated the very grammar of how the world engaged with digital technology.
In this national tech saga, Steve Jobs played the role of an uncompromising high priest, capable of justifying every design choice as if it were governed by the laws of physics.
Yet, looking at Apple in 2026, that illusion is crumbling. Between chaotic hardware launches (most notably the “Crackgate” scandal) bizarre design decisions and the ultimate about-face represented by the arrival of a touchscreen MacBook, the brand appears to have completely lost its compass.
This is the story of a giant spinning its wheels, trapped by its own contradictions.
1- When Jobs buried vertical touchscreens
To grasp the absurdity of the current situation, we must look back to October 2010.
Steve Jobs took the stage and summarily dismissed the growing demand for laptops with touchscreen displays. His words (crafted, as they often were, to hit the mark and ridicule the competition, as at the time, Microsoft and its Windows partners were already making clumsy attempts at this) were as follows:
“Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical. It doesn’t work. It’s ergonomically terrible (..) After a short period of time, you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off.” – Steve Job 2010
Video source: Excerpt from the 2010 Apple Keynote – Apple MacBook 2026 ad / Editing via The Verge.
This theory is the well-known “Gorilla Arm” syndrome, a biomechanical concept familiar to ergonomists: holding one’s arm out horizontally to interact with a vertical screen causes rapid, unbearable muscle strain.
For sixteen years, this premise served as an untouchable dogma at Apple. They would insist that the iPad was the only proper home for touch, while the Mac remained a sanctuary for precision, governed by the sacred alliance of keyboard and trackpad. For those who remained unconvinced and still craved some form of visual interaction, Apple even introduced the Touch Bar in 2016, a touch-sensitive strip positioned… flat, exactly where Jobs had argued it should be. It was yet another ergonomic aberration, which was soon abandoned and consigned to oblivion in 2023.
2- Fast forward to 2026: The great opportunistic about-face
And here we are. In 2026, Apple finally caves and brings its very first MacBook with a touchscreen to market.
What happened to their commitment to ergonomic rigor? What about the “Gorilla Arm” problem? Has gravity suddenly decided to change direction?
Obviously not. This belated reversal is by no means some technological epiphany. It is a panicked alignment with a market that has evolved without them. While users have embraced hybrid devices, Apple is facing an unforgiving reality: they no longer have anything truly revolutionary to sell in terms of hardware.
So, what do they do? They take a technology they spent years demonizing, wrap it in a new chassis, and sell it at a premium.. hoping their loyal, gullible followers will swallow the narrative. It is a display of truly abysmal marketing cynicism.
3- “Crackgate”: When Apple’s legendary quality shatters
The worst part of this turn of events is that such strategic wavering comes at a time of total distrust regarding the reliability of the company’s products. Historically, Apple consumers were willing to pay two or three times more for their devices than they would for those of competitors, for two indisputable reasons:
- a product vision that was ahead of its time
- an indestructible build quality.
Today, that tacit agreement has been broken. The “Crackgate” affair (the waves of screen cracks and structural weaknesses observed in the brand’s latest devices) serves as a stark reminder that Apple is no longer playing in the same league when it comes to quality control.
We find ourselves in an absurd situation: on one hand, exorbitantly priced machines suffering from durability issues that are unacceptable for high-end hardware; on the other, executives who are casting aside their own long-standing principles to chase the trends set by others. The flawless craftsmanship of the “golden age” has given way to a philosophy of aggressive industrial profitability, where defects inevitably slip through the cracks.
Video source: Yahoo Finance report / Coverage of “Crackgate” regarding the iPhone Duo
4- An empire running out of inspiration
This touchscreen MacBook and these manufacturing missteps are merely symptoms of a deeper malaise: Apple has entered a phase of creative stagnation.
In the past, the brand’s strength lay in its ability to say “no” to thousands of seemingly good ideas in order to focus on perfecting a single object. Today, driven by financial opportunism, Apple says “yes” to everything, even if it means publicly contradicting itself and delivering products with compromised structural integrity.
They sold us on the idea of removing ports, only to be forced to bring them back. We were told that large phones were absurd—right before the company introduced its giant “Max” models.
We were told that touchscreens on PCs were an ergonomic heresy, before the company eventually copied the idea.
In its attempt to chase too many goals at once, all while maximizing profit margins at the expense of a captive customer base, Apple is losing what once made it unique: its conceptual boldness.
Steve Jobs used to say that innovation is about knowing how to say “no.”
The Apple of 2026, however, seems capable of saying only “yes buy it, even if we claimed the exact opposite ten years ago.”
And for customers paying a premium price, the bill is starting to feel quite steep.
