On Monday it was revealed that Apple would have to face a class action lawsuit in regards to that problematic butterfly keyboard which eventually became known as #KeyboardGate. And if you ask me, Apple needs to lose this lawsuit to teach them a lesson. Why do I say that? Before I describe why I feel that way, a quick history lesson.
The only reason that the butterfly keyboard even existed is that Apple wanted to create a keyboard that was thinner and sleeker than its competitors. Which in turn would allow them to create thinner and sleeker laptops. So they ditched the tried, true, and more importantly reliable scissor switch keyboards with the butterfly keyboard. It first appeared on the entry level MacBook and it was problematic then. It then spread to the entire MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup and the complaints really started to roll in en mass.
Now Apple didn’t help themselves on several fronts from that point forward. First they didn’t help themselves by saying that the problems with these keyboards were not widespread, when in fact it was common knowledge that these keyboards were problematic. And they redesigned these keyboards a number of times to try and address these problems that they claimed weren’t widespread. But that didn’t work. So Apple then created a repair program which covered users who had keyboard issues beyond the normal warranty period. The idea being that they would have your back in case your keyboard had an issue. That would have been a good thing if the keyboards that they were using as replacements weren’t just as problematic as the defective ones. I for example know people who had as many as four keyboards replaced. And it didn’t help from an optics perspective that brand new models that Apple announced got covered by this repair program from day one.
That’s hardly a ringing endorsement in terms of the quality of their products.
They only way Apple truly could put an end to this was to bring back the tried, true, and more importantly reliable scissor switch keyboard in the 16″ MacBook Pro. And you can fully expect a version of that keyboard to appear in every MacBook or MacBook Pro that Apple releases going forward.
But the damage is done and here were are talking about it.
The thing is that this class action lawsuit is about Apple’s failure to provide a remedy to this problem. And based on the above, they haven’t. Sure they tried to redesign the keyboards a bunch of times, and sure they have a repair program to try and address #KeyboardGate issues. But neither of those actions actually fixes the issue. Which is the keyboards are flawed. So that combined with their absolutely shambolic response to this issue is why Apple deserves to lose this lawsuit. Apple has to learn how to deal with problems outside the “reality distortion field” which means that instead of dismissing issues by saying that issues aren’t widespread, or they just affect a few people, they need to own up to them at the earliest opportunity. And then they come up with a fix for those issues in a way that they stay fixed. If they can’t figure out how to execute those things on their own, the then legal system will have to “encourage” them to do the right thing. Which is to provide a remedy for #KeyboardGate that is actually a remedy.
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This entry was posted on December 4, 2019 at 9:41 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Apple Needs To Lose The #KeyboardGate So That They Can Learn A Valuable Lesson
On Monday it was revealed that Apple would have to face a class action lawsuit in regards to that problematic butterfly keyboard which eventually became known as #KeyboardGate. And if you ask me, Apple needs to lose this lawsuit to teach them a lesson. Why do I say that? Before I describe why I feel that way, a quick history lesson.
The only reason that the butterfly keyboard even existed is that Apple wanted to create a keyboard that was thinner and sleeker than its competitors. Which in turn would allow them to create thinner and sleeker laptops. So they ditched the tried, true, and more importantly reliable scissor switch keyboards with the butterfly keyboard. It first appeared on the entry level MacBook and it was problematic then. It then spread to the entire MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup and the complaints really started to roll in en mass.
Now Apple didn’t help themselves on several fronts from that point forward. First they didn’t help themselves by saying that the problems with these keyboards were not widespread, when in fact it was common knowledge that these keyboards were problematic. And they redesigned these keyboards a number of times to try and address these problems that they claimed weren’t widespread. But that didn’t work. So Apple then created a repair program which covered users who had keyboard issues beyond the normal warranty period. The idea being that they would have your back in case your keyboard had an issue. That would have been a good thing if the keyboards that they were using as replacements weren’t just as problematic as the defective ones. I for example know people who had as many as four keyboards replaced. And it didn’t help from an optics perspective that brand new models that Apple announced got covered by this repair program from day one.
That’s hardly a ringing endorsement in terms of the quality of their products.
They only way Apple truly could put an end to this was to bring back the tried, true, and more importantly reliable scissor switch keyboard in the 16″ MacBook Pro. And you can fully expect a version of that keyboard to appear in every MacBook or MacBook Pro that Apple releases going forward.
But the damage is done and here were are talking about it.
The thing is that this class action lawsuit is about Apple’s failure to provide a remedy to this problem. And based on the above, they haven’t. Sure they tried to redesign the keyboards a bunch of times, and sure they have a repair program to try and address #KeyboardGate issues. But neither of those actions actually fixes the issue. Which is the keyboards are flawed. So that combined with their absolutely shambolic response to this issue is why Apple deserves to lose this lawsuit. Apple has to learn how to deal with problems outside the “reality distortion field” which means that instead of dismissing issues by saying that issues aren’t widespread, or they just affect a few people, they need to own up to them at the earliest opportunity. And then they come up with a fix for those issues in a way that they stay fixed. If they can’t figure out how to execute those things on their own, the then legal system will have to “encourage” them to do the right thing. Which is to provide a remedy for #KeyboardGate that is actually a remedy.
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This entry was posted on December 4, 2019 at 9:41 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.