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Judge Approves Apple's Plan to Pay $50 Million to Settle Butterfly Keyboard Lawsuit
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I'm still waiting for my "Batterygate" settlement money. Wasn't that 2 years ago?
The late 2019 16-inch model doesn't use a butterfly keyboard, so you're good 😉... at least, you are less likely to suffer from the same fate as many owners of butterfly keyboard owners.
Good for you, hanging on to your 2011 model for eight years! Hope my 2019 16-inch model also lasts that long and performs adequately for as long as yours did.
16-inch MacBook Pro review: the keyboard nightmare is finally over
It only took years of complaints for Apple to finally cave.
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Well the good news out of all this is that now Apple touts "key travel" specifically in their marketing. Seems they got the message that people actually prefer (gasp) actual tactile feedback when they type.
Yeah...I guess it's possible Ive was fussing and tinkering with making key switches in his office while the huge team of project/systems/electrical/mechanical/software/reliability/QA/packaging engineers and other managers were developing the rest of the laptop.
Rather than just handing it off to a small group of electrical/mechanical/reliability/material engineers to come up with a keyboard based on the known dimensions of the available space in the laptop.
Certainly an excellent use of Ive's time. And of course that would be far more important than Ive's other design duties and use of his time at Apple.
That would make so much sense. And would be a real knee-slapper.
I assume the usual type of settlement: $49.9 million to the lawyers and a $20 gift card at Walmart for each class member. At least half the gift cards will never make it to their destination/be used.
Oops. Looks like someone made a mistake:
"He became the senior vice president of industrial design* in 1997 after the return of Jobs, and subsequently headed the industrial design team responsible for most of the company's significant hardware products."
*Emphasis mine
A Rare Look at Design Genius Jony Ive: The Man Behind the Apple Watch
How Apple’s under-the-radar design genius, Jonathan Ive, has found the way to our hearts.
"It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advance of the manufacture or production of the product...."
Industrial design - Wikipedia
So yes, Ive was indeed responsible for the butterfly keyboard.
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That seems like a lot. But the system basically works. Who do you think funds the lawsuit for years to bring Apple to the bargaining table and sign the settlement? It is the lawyers who fund it (well the law firm they work for). They do the work for years and their law firm (which is really just the senior lawyers of the firm) funds the litigation. If they get Apple to settle and agree to a payment, they get a huge amount of money. When Apple takes it all the way to court and wins (or the lawyers run out of money to continue the lawsuit (which happens all the time)), the lawyers get paid nothing from no one.
If the government sets an upper limit and the upper limit isn't high enough, then there will be lawsuits against the biggest companies for the worst stuff that will just be too hard and expensive to bring.
Apple screwed up big time on the butterfly keyboard. This is a pretty decent slap on the wrist for Apple to not screw up like this again.
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2019 the problem was mostly fixed. It’s the 2018 and before that has the most issues. 2019 was the best of that design with the update they did to them.
It’s a shame the butterfly keyboard went away. The typing experience on my 2017 MBP was much nicer than my current 2019 MBP, which feels all mushy and wobbly in comparison.
While being a clickety-clack and noisy keyboard design, it did indeed have the benefit of very tight key travel. I kind of liked it myself and was pleasantly surprised to use it when I first bought my MacBook Pro 2016 with the new design. Too bad about the noise and the reliability, though.
He might have actually liked it back in the day. Would be interesting to find archives of any interviews he did, where he may have expressed an opinion on the keyboard feel. I get the feeling that the design department was really hyped up on it, so every in Apple ended up "drinking the same Kool-Aid"...
I much preferring the noise the 2017 keyboard made vs the 2019! The 2017 had a lovely clicky sound to it.