It wasn’t long after Apple changed the mechanisms of its MacBook keyboards that reports of sticky keys and other problems surfaced. Over time as anecdotal evidence mounted, it became apparent that the problem was widespread, but of course, only Apple knew exactly how common the issues were.
Now, in response to the keyboard problems, Apple has begun a keyboard service program to fix or replace keyboards with faulty butterfly switch mechanisms.
As usual when it comes to systemic defects in its products – hello PowerPC logic board failures – Apple really dragged its feet on this one. Unlike the Apple-verse, I’m not even going to commend them for this.
Maybe this means they’ve fixed the problems with a third revision.
Previously, they were replacing the keyboard in 2016 models with the 2nd revision 2017 model keyboard. That would cost money if the AppleCare had expired.
Seeing that 2017 models are also covered under this program, maybe there is a new 2018 third revision of the keyboard rolling out, that Apple can upgrade users to without backtracking from their terrible design choice.
Only the T25 has a good keyboard on a laptop anymore, and the price premium is offset by an incredibly shitty display.
Many questions here:
How much real-life testing were the butterfly keyboard prototypes subjected before finalizing the design?
How much of a postmortem analysis was performed on the 2016 failed keys/keyboard?
What is the probability that the issue(s) was(were) fixed for the 2018 models?
As a side note, by T25 you are referring to the ThinkPad 25 Anniversary Edition?
Yeah, 25th Anniversary Edition. I’ve owned four of them. Great keyboard, terrible display.
Doubt it. I have seen failure rates mooted at about 5-10% for the 2017 revision. Apple’s economics might make it more profitable to replace those than redesign until the next strategic design comes out.
Replacement is not redesign.
And keybaords will keep failing. The repair programme is time limited so effectively an extended warranty.
Apple will never reveal the failure rates but here are two data points:
* Apple staff at a major London store saying “the repair rooms are full of them”
* corporates who issue hundreds to their workers reporting 40% failing within first year
Apple need to offer full refunds, not extended warranty.
I’ve been having lots of discussion recently not just about apple’s design failing and the unjustified prices, but also questions about who Apple’s target audience is now. And where do technical or professional users go now?
If the MacBook was a car, the latest re-design would have been called a lemon.
This also means that the resale value of that generation of MacBook is essentially zero!
Maybe some enterprising hardware hacker could design and contract manufacture a better keyboard and make a living by offering replacement services?
This could be an interesting test case for other uses of 3D Printers and robotic disassembly machinery!
Windows? Linux? Go crazy in his garage with his friends and create something new? (we, OS aficionados, are in a dire need of something new for the desktop market, everything looks so stale in the last 5 years)
From what I see is that loosing developers on OS X, err… sorry, macOS, is bad for Apple. Including (and mainly) for their smartphone division.
Can’t begin to describe how much I hate the keyboard on my MB Pro 2017. The touchbar is a joke as well.
If they don’t fix the keyboard, I’ll have to change to something else (and I’ve loved the keyboard since my first mac 10 years ago)
The quest for “thiness” has some downsides.
if Apple would acknowledge and replace the GPU issue with 2011/2012 Macbook Pros. Other than the flaky GPU my 6 y.o. MacBook is more than adequate for pretty much any modern task!
Edited 2018-06-24 17:35 UTC
I consider my MacBook Pro’s keyboard to be defective by design. No hardware ESC key is a nightmare if you have to go into recovery mode and use VIM for any reason. I keep an old DELL keyboard around just in case.
So Apple won’t be raising prices on any of their products anytime soon?