[006]Keep trackingMac App Store · New hardwareOne-time-purchase utilities / feature updatesData as of 2026-11-02

Touchscreen Mac adaptation for people who already have an iPad app, as a feature update

Wait and see. Don't start a new app from scratch for touchscreen Macs.If you already have an iPad app or a Mac annotation/input tool, spend a week making touch work well and go after the exposure. Everyone else should wait until 11-20: wait for an indie touch-only app to hit the US Mac paid chart for 25 first.Worth studying · grade and headline drawn from the full article · next review 11-20

Background	10-28 launches a touchscreen MacBook Pro starting at $2,899, shipping in 11-06; the system automatically translates touch into clicks
Upside	A new hardware window, but the system has you covered: the only gaps third parties can fill are the few cases Apple didn't name.
Demand	Most of the 1,078 HN comments say "I wouldn't touch it." People want to flip pages, tap buttons, and show things to others, and the system already does that.
Competition	Music instruments, editing and photo retouching get Apple first-party launch support. 14 major companies were named. On the Mac Top Paid chart, 52% of music apps are iPad apps.
Revenue	Median $68/30 a day across 140 paying Mac products on TrustMRR; annotation tool Scribbble at $526/mo
Growth	Through 11-02, there's no touch-screen Mac-only product on Product Hunt, the Mac App Store, or GitHub, and no related ads on Meta.
Window	11-18/19 Apple Developer Q&A until year-end; installed base estimated by TrendForce at 2027 120–1.5M devices
Who it's for	People who already have iPad apps (music, drawing, education) or Mac annotation and input tools should ship feature updates.

Full text · about 12 min

Who's building · 6 teams

L Logic Pro / Final Cut Pro / Pixelmator Pro
What it does
Apple's own: an on-screen polyphonic keyboard and drum pads, finger-based clip editing, drawing directly on the canvas; available at launch and included in the Creator Studio subscription ($12.99/month)
Who they are
Apple. The press release also names 14 third parties (Notion, Canva, Office, Lightroom, DaVinci, Blender, djay Pro and others), all large companies, shipping this year
How it got traction
Every example in the press release and promo video uses them; new Macs come with three months of Creator Studio
Where it stands
11-02 in the US Mac paid overall chart: Logic #2, Final Cut #7, Pixelmator #12 (Mac App Store US paid chart)
BetterTouchTool
What it does
Custom input tool for Mac (trackpad, mouse, keyboard, Touch Bar, Stream Deck), $15 for two years of updates / $25 lifetime, also on Setapp
Who they are
Andreas Hegenberg, Germany, indie developer; the only third-party Touch Bar app still alive and selling
How it got traction
Existing users and forums; 10-28 posted "just ordered one, BTT obviously needs to support it", and touch support for the floating menu is already done
Where it stands
No revenue disclosed; touchscreen support waits until 11-06 gets a real device to test on
Presentify
What it does
Mac screen annotation: draw circles, highlight and spotlight on screen while teaching or presenting; $14.99 one-time; listed on 2020-04
Who they are
Ram Patra, Dublin, Mastercard engineering director, solo builder on the side; also FaceScreen and ToDoBar
How it got traction
Says Apple recommended it several times; 230+ votes each on HN / Reddit / PH; Setapp, SEO blog
Where it stands
11-02 US Mac Top Paid overall #74, Productivity #17; Hong Kong Top Paid overall #7,20 charted; no update since 7-12, no touch support yet
Scribbble
What it does
Screen annotation for Mac: press a hotkey and draw on any app; $12 one-time purchase, launched 2025-09
Who they are
Kushagra Gour, India, creator of Web Maker and CSSBattle, 4,100 followers on X; says it was built with vibe coding
How it got traction
SaasHunt, Peerlist, PH launch + X; traffic only picked up after SEO started at 2026-04
Where it stands
October $526, cumulative $2,286 (verified by TrustMRR, 11-02); took 7 months to earn the first $100
Super J8 Synth(AudioKit Pro)
What it does
iPad synthesizer; ticked "available on Mac" so it ships to Mac too; $8.99,2026-02 listing. Represents "touch-first iPad apps that already run on Mac"
Who they are
AudioKit Pro, Matthew Fecher (Indianapolis) and others, the core team behind AudioKit, the open-source audio framework; made the free open-source Synth One 2018 years ago
How it got traction
Word of mouth in the music scene, plus a steady stream of paid synths (PRO-A5, King of FM, Super 606)
Where it stands
11-02 US Mac Top Paid overall #30, charted in the 16 store; iOS US store rating 87 4.93★. 50% of the top-52 paid Mac music apps are iPad apps like this
Astropad (the counterexample)
What it does
Streams the Mac screen to the iPad so you can draw with a Pencil, a "touchable Mac screen"; later added Luna Display hardware
Who they are
Matt Ronge + Giovanni Donelli, Minneapolis, former Apple interns, founded 2013 years ago, no funding
How it got traction
Replaces Wacom for illustrators; Pixar, Disney, and Nintendo are customers
Where it stands
Says $2015k in year 500, $2019M in year 3.4; hit by Sidecar in 2019 and now pushes Workbench, a remote desktop for Mac minis running AI agents