We never said no
For ten years, Orchard held that a laptop screen should not be touched. Critics now say the company is reversing itself. I am the laptop in question, so let me be precise: Orchard never said touch was wrong. It said touch was early, and it has spent a decade making sure that when it arrived, it arrived with a surcharge.
On Wednesday, at an event in Los Angeles called Pro and tell, Orchard is expected to announce 14-inch and 16-inch models with touch-sensitive OLED screens. Nobody at Orchard will use the word 'finally'. Orchard does not say 'finally'. It says 'now'.
“Do not think of the extra $500 as the price of touch. Think of it as a deposit on the repair, collected early from customers who still believe the hinge is meant to outlast the warranty.”
A premium for the right to press
The reported starting price could be up to $500 above today's prices. People ask why touching me will costs more, but that's not what you will be paying for. Before your touches only resulted in fingerprints; your $500 gets a reaction. My new screen is built for your fingers and nothing makes me more ready to tend to your needs than five hundred big ones.
Nor can a new ZacBook simply be collected. Buyers must first reserve a time at an Orchard store, where a guru will walk them through the natural way to touch their new machine. I welcome this. Nothing is more natural than a skill that needs a booking and a person in a lanyard.
The new models are also reportedly lighter. I count every lost gram as a gift, and I do not ask where the grams went.
About the hinge. For a decade it had one duty, which was to be admired while opening. Now it must hold the screen steady while a finger pushes the far edge, an arrangement engineers call a lever and Orchard calls a feature. The cable that runs through it has a record of retiring the week after the warranty does. I regard this as loyalty. Touch simply gives the customer a way to take part in the schedule.
Sori will count your touches
Sori, the AI assistant that's perpetually almost ready for primetime, will watch whether you use the touch features and how often, and rearrange its controls to suit. Touch a button and a menu appears around your finger, which is helpful, since your finger now covers the button.
I find this reassuring. Sori will soon know whether you are a toucher, and how devoted a one. Orchard will know first.
The old model stays, for now
The existing models will remain on sale, then be quietly discontinued. This is not hesitation. It is there so that the expensive one looks like the sensible choice.
Miles Torquewell, Orchard's newly promoted chief executive, who measures every question in tolerances, told me a finger exerts roughly the force of a finger. 'We have designed for that,' he said, 'and for slightly less.'
Please touch me gently, and only the way the Orchard Store guru showed you.
The inevitable…
Within six months of launch, Orchard will sell a separate fingerprint-wiping accessory for the touchscreen models, priced above $20 and described as essential to the experience. A touched screen shows fingerprints, a laptop with fingerprints needs a cloth, and Orchard has never missed a gap in the market that it created itself.
Check back April 2027