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RIP Butterfly Keyboard: Apple Finally Completes Transition to Magic Keyboard
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The 2016 MBA doesn’t have the butterfly keyboard. It was first introduced to the MBA in 2018. Do you mean the 2016 MBP?
Puck mouse: Shipped for 2 years. Questionable design, but NOT a defective product. Could easily replace with any other mouse.
Butterfly keyboard: Shipped for 4 years. Questionable design AND every generation had numerous repairs. Warranty extended on all models. Did everything short of a recall. Generated class action lawsuits. Can not easily replace as using a second keyboard with a laptop defeats its mobility. Apple's design and reliability reputation tarnished. Resale value of affected units in the dumpster. Apple execs won't even talk about it without a lawyer in the room.
4 years of garbage laptops.
Tim Cook: "Isn't it magical?"
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Never say never, there’s been a couple rumours that the first ARM Mac will be a new 12” MacBook.
The whole butterfly keyboard saga was a ****ing embarrassment. Literally held my money for years instead of upgrading to a new Mac so the world's richest company could figure out how to make a keyboard that didn't break after trying what, 5 iterations? What a joke. I should add it was quite amusing watching all of the apologists here defend Apple and claim they "fixed" the butterfly design with each failed attempt lol
Issue was overblown. Butterfly keyboards were fine.
IMO things went very wrong in the manufacturing process and some of them had issues. The concerning fact is that not even Apple seemed to know how to properly get rid of all those issues and that's why the 2019 models were also included in the service problem. They did improve the keyboards, switched to different materials but still they weren't sure the problems were completely solved. The 12'' MacBook was ok, but when the keboard was in the pro models all hell broke loose - it just doaesn't make any sense saying that it's that poor of a design.
It's better that they moved on though, it's like that pressure valve release for a lot of people. The irony is that the new keboards are better, but not a lot better, just reliable. It's that reassurance that your laptop won't break so easily in the next few years.
It's better that they moved on though, it's like that pressure valve release for a lot of people. The irony is that the new keboards are better, but not a lot better, just reliable. It's that reassurance that your laptop won't break so easily in the next few years.
Is that why even after multiple revisions Apple were putting newly released laptops on a replacement program?
Yes. They were fine, some of them had issues and thus the repair program. If they were all bad they would have discontinued them sooner but still they went with the 4 yo design cycle (almost). They tried something different, there were issues but it's not the plague, move on!
overblown issue was causing a decline in sales because it scared customers away. Apple's answer was that they'll replace after the standard 1 year warranty is over to give new customers a peace of mind even though it wasn't affecting a large percentage of customers
Keyboards that are pretty much destined to fail are a big issue especially in a product where the said keyboard cannot be easily replaced.
I've heard that before, but keyboards sometimes do fail - they fail in Dells, HPs, Razer etc. If you needed a keyboard replacement from Apple you had to have the top case changed even on the older retina models because you know, sometimes one or two keys broke. With the BF keyboards you had issues more often and yes, it's not great and even worse if you oaid for service before the program started and never got your money back. I got my topcase changed one after around 2.5 yrs and I have a better keyboard and a new battery so like I said, not ideal, bot not the drama some people b*tch about. Almost every generation of Apple had its issues and flaws and I get why some people are opting for something else but the drama...
This news would have been awesome two three years ago. Just now it is just a sign that Apple doesn't listen and it is just because of the money Apple has to pay for the replacement keyboards.
The butterfly keyboard is not the only point where Apple doesn't listen. Even Microsoft is now offering replaceable SSDs in their Surface line - just because the customers requested it.
A lot of Apple customers were requesting replaceable SSDs, replaceable RAM, function keys, some ports, a valid thermal management, Nvidia GPUs, a solution for 32 bit applications, support of open standars like OpenGL/Vulkan, a cloud strategy - and nothing is going to happen as long as Cook runs the company.
The butterfly keyboard is not the only point where Apple doesn't listen. Even Microsoft is now offering replaceable SSDs in their Surface line - just because the customers requested it.
A lot of Apple customers were requesting replaceable SSDs, replaceable RAM, function keys, some ports, a valid thermal management, Nvidia GPUs, a solution for 32 bit applications, support of open standars like OpenGL/Vulkan, a cloud strategy - and nothing is going to happen as long as Cook runs the company.
To be fair, people will always want things - they make a grey one, why not a red one too? Of course we all want incredible thermals, but the limitations are obvious with current technology; not to mention battery life, we'd all like to charge our laptops once a month. The 32 bit apps are not Apple's fault - why do we have so many 32 bit apps that some refuse to update until the last moment? There's almost no software optimization yet we still look for gains with 10% more CPU power.
I don't think I'm the only one that looks for the whole package when upgrading a laptop, especialy after 3-4 yrs. I don't want just the 16 gigs of RAM added or just a bigger SSD, I'm looking for a better screen, better and more efficient CPU, new battery, newer and better GPU.
Even if it had 100% reliability, the butterfly keyboard is still problematic. Typing on it feels like typing on a concrete slab. Very uncomfortable!
Perhaps it took them a while to work up the courage [to admit they FUBAR-ed].
The point is that we already had the whole package. I switched to the Mac in 2006 and I was overwhelmed. 15" MBP - awesome / 17" MBP, Macbook Air, MacPro - best computers I ever owned. Connect your Nokia/Siemens/Motorola/whatever, start iSync and it just worked (like Apple promised).
The whole mess started in 2012 with soldered RAM. No problem - maxed it out to 16GB. But then situation became worse: Waited for a decent upgrade, waited, waited, butterfly appeared, functions keys disappeared, esc key disappeared, SSDs soldered, ports removed.
Then finally I had to upgrade in 2018 to an i9/32GB/1TB MBP and it was the worst and most expensive experience I ever had. But did it stop there? No way! Catalina appeared and turned out to be the worst OS I ever used. But as a developer you have to use it, so I'm doomed.
32 bit apps are truly Apples fault since it is not 32 vs 64 bit. It is about alle the old frameworks Apple dropped (like Carbon) and it doesn't make sense to port the old software to the new frameworks (from a monetary aspect). I'm almost sure that it would have been easy for Apple to create some sort of 32 bit container with the old frameworks to guarantee that the ol software keeps working.
Does this mean if my mbp that I bought in january keyboard breaks it’ll be replaced with the newer one ?
