I honestly thought the touch bar was introduced into the laptops as 'test' iteration before it leading somewhere, and maybe partly with the ipad pros. For on-the-move prosumer use in music, video, and image editing I can see a lot of use for fully customisable hot buttons, especially combined with the pencil.

As it is, they're in a weird space. It's better to buy an air than the ipad pro + pro keyboard, the price of which is eye-watering. My ipad is now a very expensive screen for watching Tv in bed, and playing the odd bit of roblox to keep endgaged with my kids. I'm not going to bother typing anything on it... it's an absolute chore compared to my phone because of worse ergonomics due to it's size.

As a gateway device for AI... something maybe there's an interesting use case to be discovered but I'm not bullish on the value proposition of them going forward.

> I honestly thought the touch bar was introduced into the laptops as 'test' iteration before it leading somewhere

I think you're right—but for whatever reason, they decided not to go there.