Apple’s latest keyboard-less MacBook patent suggests a “MacPad” might be in the cards

A “Configurable force-sensitive input structure for electronic devices” is Apple’s latest patent describing a zero-travel keyboard in the form of a touchpad that completely replaces the keyboard on a MacBook, with a configurable surface.

Just like existing Force Touch embodiments found across other Apple devices like the MacBook Pro and the iMac’s Magic Trackpad 2, future MacBooks could someday incorporate a trackpad capable of simulate the appearance of a keyboard, without moving parts, by providing haptic feedback when a keypress is detected.

This invention would allow interesting applications as well, such as the ability to customize the keyboard layout and configuration, to make it easy to fit international keyboard layouts, as well as enable accessory layouts like numeric pads.

If this patent sounds familiar, it’s likely due to a previous patent filed by Apple in May of last year, called “Fusion Keyboard”, which describes the ability to turn each key on a MacBook’s keyboard, into a collection of touchpad components that would turn the entire keyboard into a touch-sensitive surface, to be used as a Force Touch trackpad.

While the latter patent published on Thursday seems to go in the opposite direction, there are strong indicators that Apple is researching ways to eliminate the traditional keyboard paradigm, and replace it with a 100% gesture-focused user experience.

One could argue that using a trackpad as keyboard may present a number of challenges, such as being unable to know which key to type. Apple’s new patent has found a solution for this, by means of micro-perforations in the trackpad surface, through which light could shine through and provide visual feedback on where each key is.

Using micro-perforations would of course limit the customization of keyboard/touchpad layouts on future MacBooks, to a number of pre-designed templates. With that said, the improvement in terms of wear and tear would be substantial.

Apple’s focus on touch-sensitive technologies is unabashedly leaving the traditional keyboard in the dust, as the only attempt to improve upon a typing mechanism that dates back to 1946, was to replace the traditional scissor keypress method, with Apple’s proprietary “butterfly” mechanism, a minor improvement that still leaves Mac keyboard vulnerable to the test of time.

How far is Apple from building the “MacPad”?

The step from a MacBook with a trackpad replacing the keyboard, and an iPad Pro, seems rather brief, according to this new patent. With that said, there is no chance that Apple will break its vows to merge MacBooks and iPads into one hybrid tablet PC a-la Microsoft Surface, at the cost of cannibalizing its own devices, and confusing consumers.