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. )