Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Rubbish, he was in charge of design, no one else, that was his job, he has the final say not others.. to make changes like this has lots of planning and R&D which will have had to go through and be approved by Ive.
He has the final say not others? Says who? Not one story has come out saying the butterfly keyboard was his demand imposed on the rest of the company.
 
I don’t see anywhere in this report where he says the laptops will be getting thicker. What excuse will Marco Arment and others use if these new laptops are just as thin but with a different keyboard?

Also LOL at anyone who thinks a new keyboard was redesigned in a week. Plus Ive is still on Apple’s leadership page. He hasn’t left yet.

But, now that Apple middle management knows he is going to be gone (and probably have known or suspected for some time), I think they feel they can stand up (and have been standing up for some time) against his obvious lack of balance in design of form over function. It has been obvious to users for quite some time.

I can't imagine Ive feels comfortable with the new Mac Pro design and I'm sure he does not want his name associated with it. You will note that he did not do one of his phony design videos for the new Mac Pro. I would guess we'll hear in 5 or 6 years that the new Mac Pro case design was at least one of several factors that pushed him to resign. The loss of "God" status based on poor functionality of his designs was also probably part of it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ohbrilliance
I actually love the butterfly keyboard, but worrying it will be spoilt one day.

I like it too. If you type lightly and not heavy handed (or bang on the keyboard like I see many people do) it may last without an issue.

This is my hope and so far have not had an issue with it. I think the butterfly keyboard was designed for light and fast typing. The keyboard made me stop hitting the keys down hard and made me change my typing style To a more light handed approach. Now I prefer it, though I like the touch of the new magic keyboard.
 
Rubbish, he was in charge of design, no one else, that was his job, he has the final say not others.. to make changes like this has lots of planning and R&D which will have had to go through and be approved by Ive.

Ah, you speak with great certainty my lord. You must have insider knowledge of how Apple has been functioning for the past year or two.
 
Ive left and now we might get a better keyboard.
If Tim leaves, we get lower prices!
These are the dumbest takes of all. First, Ive hasn’t left yet. Second, changes like this have been in the works for way more than a week. :rolleyes:
 
I want ports that I can plug in more than ten percent of peripherals..

While I see your point, I simply bought half a dozen new UB-C cables and can plug in all my peripherals. My only chllenge is my Firewire Nikon scanner, but I have not tried the ganging of Apple's Firewire adapters to see if it works.

Of course, Apple will probably come out with some newer plug in a couple of years.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: ohbrilliance
****. I need to upgrade but sounds like I have to wait a little longer now...and my present laptop will sell for even less when I do:/
 
Maybe. The truth is that we really don't know much about how decisions are done over at Apple HQ, so why put all the blame on one single man?

Yep, this is entirely correct. We should blame Cook and Ive equally for the poor Mac designs. After all that's why they get paid the big bucks.
 
Last edited:
The MBA is amazing for multiple reasons.
- It’s cheaper than MBP (and most people don’t need the power of the MBP)
- It has a physical Esc-key
- It still has touchID

Unfortunately the current MBA don’t have the “fixed” keyboard. Which means I’d absolutely never order it.

A scissor-key MBA will definitely make me buy one. My next request would be to make the screen just a bit brighter.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jeffreyg
But, now that Apple middle management knows he is going to be gone (and probably have known or suspected for some time), I think they feel they can stand up (and have been standing up for some time) against his obvious lack of balance in design of form over function. It has been obvious to users for quite some time.

I can't imagine Ive feels comfortable with the new Mac Pro design and I'm sure he does not want his name associated with it. You will note that he did not do one of his phony design videos for the new Mac Pro. I would guess we'll hear in 5 or 6 years that the new Mac Pro case design was at least one of several factors that pushed him to resign. The loss of "God" status based on poor functionality of his designs was also probably part of it.
Yes he did. Here’s the video:

Plus he was the one showing it off to Tim Cook in the hands on area at WWDC.

D8K7EvrWwAAEpCR.jpg


8b29b013c6d0e98b2f4216136b2ea1dc9f810df0.jpg


Everything you wrote is what you want to believe, not what’s going on at Apple.
 
But, now that Apple middle management knows he is going to be gone (and probably have known or suspected for some time), I think they feel they can stand up (and have been standing up for some time) against his obvious lack of balance in design of form over function. It has been obvious to users for quite some time.

Possibly, but Apple has always been a design company, even in the Apple ][ days. The Woz was an engineer and pushed for things he wanted in a machine, while Jobs was was the form person. I think you need both but with balance.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nt5672
Great news that the upcoming Air will have a new keyboard. Hopefully it won't be sluggish and underpowered like last year's model.
 
Best news for macbooks in years. I will be picking up the maxed out 2019 air in a few months.
 
The MBA is amazing for multiple reasons.
- It’s cheaper than MBP (and most people don’t need the power of the MBP)
- It has a physical Esc-key
- It still has touchID

Unfortunately the current MBA don’t have the “fixed” keyboard. Which means I’d absolutely never order it.

A scissor-key MBA will definitely make me buy one. My next request would be to make the screen just a bit brighter.

Wish they offered 15" screens on all the models -- not just MBP.
 
I hope there will be MBA with bigger screen. I don't really need the fastest CPU / GPU. Just bigger screen, 16GB+ RAM and 512GB+ SSD. And maybe eGPU if needed.
 
He has the final say not others? Says who? Not one story has come out saying the butterfly keyboard was his demand imposed on the rest of the company.

Ah, you speak with great certainty my lord. You must have insider knowledge of how Apple has been functioning for the past year or two.

Well according to Apple themselves you can claim Ive and Dan Riccio decide what goes into the Mac as that’s their jobs! They both report directly to Cook so unless your claiming Cook has gone over their advice, a man without the technical qualifications, like the report in the WSJ states, then your blaming one man instead of the three it is.

http://www.apple.com/uk/leadership/jonathan-ive/

http://www.apple.com/uk/leadership/dan-riccio/

So you either claim others have the final say, or you just blame Ive for everything, so which is it? You can’t have both as that literally would make no sense in the argument.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: PC_tech
If this is true it'll be my first new mac in 7 years.
I think you're not alone in this, and that this is the major reason for the change: people postponing upgrades even with money in hand.

I don't necessarily disbelieve Apple's leaked internal report that claimed butterfly-equipped laptops had less issues overall than previous generations, but the optics to buyers were that you would be on the hook for $600-800 worth of top case + logic board + battery replacement if a single key broke beyond repair. This must have measurably depressed sales.

It's disappointing that Apple appear to still have run out the design lifetime of four years before making radical changes to alleviate concerns with the keyboards. And the timing of the MBA upgrade is curious.
 
Guys, you do understand that palm rejection is a thing, right?

It's been quite consistently great on Apple devices, and apart from the "too big :mad:" nobody actually gave an explanation what is actually the problem.

I rest my hand on the computer all the time and I never had one reading of my palms that affected my work. Hell, I the palm rejection ****s up so little, I can't even remember when was the last time I accidentally moved my mouse.
Yea I just feel like these complainers don’t own a newer machine and used it once at the store. I love the trackpad it’s big and amazing. No issues with false touches. I’ve had a 2016 for 3 years and now a 2019.
[doublepost=1562250755][/doublepost]
Yeah I don't get this either. I actually really like the larger trackpad. I don't ever have any issues with with my palms causing the curser to move. I've never understood the "its too big" narrative. When I look at my 2015 model it almost seems too small now.

I will say this though, the 2019 trackpad really sounds clunky to me. I loved the silent click on the 2015 models but the 2019 is really loud comparatively. It's louder than the 2018 model and also the new MacBook Airs. I'm not sure if it has to do with the new keyboard design, but something about it doesn't hit my ear quite right. Side by side with a 2018 model there is a clear difference in how they sound.
You can silent the click in settings yaaa know.
 
apple releases a new materials keyboard for the 2019 macbook pros and then releases all new keyboard to other lines 3 months later? Yeaaa, not buying it.
Why would they put more $$$ into one year when they plan on releasing newer keyboards in the same or even following year?

Most likely because they were persuing two solutions in somewhat in parallel. The revised materials solution that recently launched did not require a redesign of the case. Extremely, likely it has the same physical dimensions of the old keyboard subsystem. That means the case doesn't have to be redesigned and all the infrastructure and logistics of getting out a new case.

The report seems to indicate that the new keyboard is only coming to a case that they just finished relatively recently. That case may have been designed with option A or B for the keyboard in the first place. Or that it is such a fresh design that they are not as committed to the "sunk costs" on that case and could iterate on it quickly because they designers had just finished touching it. ( It is extremely hard to believe that all during the development of this new MBA retina case that they did not know that the keyboard had some major FUBAR issues and didn't either didn't have a keyboard A/B plan or an alternative design that got waved off that had a switch back to different keyboard foundation. (The latter waved off on some tap dancing that just a few more tweaks would 'fix' the butterfly problem) . )

That it will take another year to get a revised MBP case(s) out the door ... also not particularly surprising in Apple's limited ability to "walk and chew gum at the same time" in the Mac space. If revising 1-2 Mac models then can't do the others is a repeating pattern over the last 3-4 years. They put the money into an incrementally better keyboard because it will actually probably save them money over the additional year they spend iterating to a better foundation. I suspect the latest iteration is substantially better than the first generation butterfly. However, Apple has taken so long to fix the problems that at this point the whole butteryfly approach is just about as much a public relations (PR) disaster as much as it is a technical problem. Even if fix the technical failure issues it is still won't get over the reputation. ( And frankly being 'too low' in key travel is an issue that Apple didn't put a priority on while the technical failures were more pressing. there are a substantive number of folks who didn't like the travel any; the key failures were only additional gasoline on the fire. )

And it isn't just the keyboard. The whole move to make keyboard replacement drag in many other parts so that the cost is very expensive. It seems doubtful anyone put prudent thought into how that would go over for consumers ( or Apple) over the extended term. [ other than being a hustle for extra dollars. ]


They would of just ran the 2018 keyboards for one more year to save that r&d on fixing the butterfly keyboards.

I'm not so sure they "saved" any butterfly R&D costs. This last fix may have been developed 2-3 years ago but didn't make the "Scrooge McDuck" cut of being cost effective enough. So the actual cost is already a sunk cost. That "membrane" fix that came out last year Apple filed a patent for that in 2016. http://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?docid=20180068808 . If they filed in 2016 someone was doing the R&D before that ( unless they were just spitballing something quick in 2016 ). They didn't deploy it until 2018; two years later. .

In short, I think Apple had some of this stuff before. They just didn't opt to use it previously.


The stuff that Apple did in 2019 has a good chance of being worked on ( incurring costs ) way back in 2016-7. So perhaps also 2-3 years of making it out the door. Someone may have waved it off because heat , materials , and lower costs weren't the "core problem". (and later the membrane thing would be 'enough' ).

I also don't think Apple took seriously enough the depth and breath of the root cause issues. Until they deploy the extended warrantee for the keyboard that they didn't have a firm grip on the scope of the problem. Once that scope became clear, the PR aspects got clearer. ( Maybe also unexpected number of folks still buying older version of MBA with non butteryfly keyboard also brought some clarity. )
 
  • Like
Reactions: x-evil-x
great just bough ipad mini -travel .. need to find new keyboard.. replaceable.. :p
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.