How bad is the keyboard issue?
The butterfly keyboard issue is so bad that Apple abandoned the design and instituted a broad and fairly comprehensive replacement program.
My guess is that the latter was done to minimize the impact of an eventual class action settlement.
Apple will likely have to eventually pay out millions to anyone who owned a Mac with a butterfly keyboard. Not tomorrow, not next week but probably some time about 5-7 years from today by the time this case works its way through the serpentine US legal system.
I just received my $24 settlement check from Shamrell et al. v. Apple, the class action suit related to defective power buttons on several generations of iPhones. In my case, my iPhone 4S was eligible, thus circa 2011.
That is what Apple is trying to avoid. By discontinuing its deployment Apple has already conceded that the basic butterfly keyboard design was defective despite at least one revision. The last thing Apple wants is for the butterfly keyboard class action suit to go to a jury trial because Apple will be on the hook for big bucks (plus lose goodwill).
The newly instituted AirPods Pro replacement program (due to static, etc.) is likely another attempt to minimize the eventual class action settlement.
There's a good chance I stand to receive settlement payments from Apple from both the keyboard and APP class action suits since I have owned both products. Naturally, I have no desire for such payouts when I make the original purchase.
The problem lies in Apple's propensity in misrepresenting marginal designs as product advancements and -- this is key --
stubbornly sticking with those misrepresentations for years despite a plethora of contradictory evidence.
These payouts are buried in Apple's SEC filings since they don't affect Apple's gross margins and aren't part of COGS. They are probably somewhere in SG&A.
