“Customer complaints over Apple’s butterfly keyboard have again turned into legal action, with a class action lawsuit filed in California court on Tuesday claiming the company sold, and continues to sell, a product known to be defective,” Mikey Campbell reports for AppleInsider.
“Filed in the Northern District Court of California, the complaint echoes many of the claims made in a first class action lawsuit regarding the same issue earlier this month,” Campbell reports. “In the immediate action, three named plaintiffs allege the butterfly mechanism introduced with the 2015 MacBook, and later applied to the MacBook Pro line in 2016, is prone to failure.”
“Aside from plaintiff testimonials, the suit cites numerous online forum posts, blog accounts and reports detailing consumer complaints with Apple’s butterfly key mechanism. Beyond sticking keys, users describe troubles relating to the design including broken key caps, among other flaws,” Campbell reports. “Plaintiffs assert breach of express warranty, violation of the Magnuson-Moss and Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Acts, violation of the California Unfair Competition Law and violation of California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act. The suit seeks class certification, restitution, damages and legal fees.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Form over function.
SEE ALSO:
Apple hit with class action suit over MacBook, MacBook Pro butterfly switch keyboard failures – May 12, 2018
Report: Butterfly MacBook Pro keyboards require more frequent, more expensive repairs – May 8, 2018
MacBook Pro users petition Apple to recall and replace defective butterfly keyboards – May 3, 2018
Apple’s MacBook Pro keyboards said to be failing twice as frequently as older design – May 1, 2018
MacBook Pro: The butterfly keyboard effect – April 26, 2018
Where Apple’s reinvention of the keyboard may go next: Full touchscreen – March 14, 2018
Apple’s design decisions and iPhone batteries – January 8, 2018
Hey Apple, it’s time to give up thinness for bigger, longer-lasting batteries – January 6, 2017
Apple in talks to acquire Australian startup Sonder for dynamic key-morphing Magic Keyboard – October 13, 2016
At this point, why make iPhone any thinner? – January 8, 2016
Open thread: What’d be wrong with slightly thicker iPhone with more battery life and a flush camera assembly? – December 21, 2015
These keyboards should be named ‘Jony Ive’ rather than butterfly.
I have owned Mac laptops for 20 years and a Mac mini for 7 years. I have an iPhone and iPad as does my partner.
And I fear that I the next computer I buy will be a Dell XPS laptop. True, Windows is not as good as OS X. But the keyboard works without having to rotate a $1500 piece of kit at 75 degree angles whilst blasting it with compressed air. The battery lasts for more than 5 hours. It will work with a small mini-pc desk computer to replace the ageing Mac mini. And all will still work with my iPhone and iPad.
Microsoft under Ballmer made shed loads of cash. But the foundations rotted. The same is happening with Apple. There is no Mac mini. The MacBook and MacBook pros are ever more expensive and ever more unreliable. OS X has stopped me from moving but there is only so long that good software can win over incapable or non existent hardware.
I liked Tim Cook and the image of an openly gay CEO. But he is not delivering on his job
George, I just have to ask you: What good software are you talking about? I just spent the past few days rolling back three Macintoshes from High Sierra to Sierra (mine, my boyfriend Rafael’s and my neighbor Dee Ann’s) . . . all because High Sierra is so slow that it rendered our Macs unusable.
Actually, I have not upgraded to High Sierra on my MacBook Air. I have found Sierra to be solid and in default of having the time to perform a clean install, I have left it as it is.
I also thought that I might have replaced my MacBook air by now – which was another reason for me not to install High Sierra. But after issues concerning battery life and keyboard (not to mention price) I have held off.
I have a MacBook Pro 2016 model…
I absolutely hate the keyboard. The Finger Fatigue is real.
When i try the butterfly key board at Apple store, i dont like it much at all. I love my mid 2012 Macbook pro keyboard, it has a pleasant feel to it and the back lights is impressive at night. Never had any problems with the old style key boards.
I type about 70 words per minute. The machine I type on constantly is the MacBook Pro 2016 and 2017. I have two of them. I don’t get any finger fatigue. The only problem I’ve had with the keyboard is the left shift key on the 2016 model didn’t quite feel like it was definitely pressed.
Since then it’s worn in I guess because I either don’t have the problem anymore or don’t notice it.
The keyboard seems fine to me. I’m using it right now. I wish I could testify on Apple’s behalf on this one.
I find the reports of broken key caps suspicious to say the least. I suspect, just a guess, people were messing around with keys and pry them lose or something.
All in all the 2016 and 2017 are the finest MacBooks that Apple has ever released, bar none.
The reports to the opposite are typical of a phenomenon that is going to have to be classified and defined in the future because it is out of control in every possible respect and that is Internet Hysteria.
It is my observation that Internet Hysteria concerning Apple Products begins not on Facebook, not on Twitter, but on youtube with a select few reviewers.
Many of these people make big bucks doing product reviews on youtube and are often able to afford buying the newest Apple products the moment they are released.
Once one of these few people sets the tone of the reviews, i.e. very excited or downright disappointed, it becomes the foundation upon which subsequent reviews are based, and the echo chamber grows to encompass the greater Internet community.
From there is gets to the crazy people. So a youtube reviewer’s comment about preferring the keyboard on his old computer to the new keyboard evolves into a bizarre global crescendo of misery, with Apple haters being the most vocal abusers of this particular flavor of fake news.
At the same time, the reviewers can proclaim a product to be the second coming of Christ and people will chime in likewise.
Obviously the truth lies somewhere in the middle, but with Internet Hysteria, I think the truth is often just the opposite.
There may be issues with keyboards breaking but I would love to see broken keyboard statistics on all MacBook products over time in comparison.
I am not the fanboy I once was. Apple doesn’t need that anymore. I criticize Apple where I believe there is a failing and I am one of those people who doesn’t like Apple taking so long to update Macs. I’m sick of hearing about iPhones iPhones iPhones. So I’m not just defending Apple based on habit or how much I love the company.
The new MacBook Pro might the finest MacBook Apple has ever made, but it is certainly not the finest laptop on the market. I’ve grown very fond of Razer laptops personally, and that is because I get much more powerful and equally well built laptop for the same money. Quite attractive too, less bezels, thin, all black.
It’s just that using the MacBook Pro is a fine experience. It’s beautiful, extremely light, and a great place to use macOS.
The keyboard complaints? Having 2 of the machines and having no problems with the keyboards, in fact possibly typing a bit faster on them, I’m strongly feeling that we are being hit with Internet Hysteria again. A sort of digital somatization.
And face it. No one is dying because they broke their stupid keyboards. This is hardly a class action matter.
I believe that people were disappointed in the lack of a major upgrade to the MacBook Pro, placing it solidly back in the “best” laptop category. I.e. 32 Gigabytes of RAM, the fastest processor available, etc.
From there it just evolved into picking on everything about the machine, the keyboard, the touch bar, the decision to go with only Thunderbolt 3.
Every review was an echo of all the others.
People were essentially compelling that they went out and spent $4000 and didn’t get a dramatic upgrade. This is Apple’s fault for letting the product essentially languish for so long while concentrating on iPhones. One of my clients has about 15. Their biggest complaint… lack of ports. After a year they no longer complain about this because devices have been replaced, and there are so many adapters around that finding one only takes a second.
“..cites numerous online forum posts, blog accounts and reports detailing consumer complaints..”
Well, if people complained about it on the internet, it’s definitely a failing more than other keyboards and IS DEFINITELY a design problem.
Good thinking.
I really hate the butterfly keyboard, but I knew I didn’t like it when I bought my MBP. I put a keyboard protector on it to keep crud out of it, I slip a Matias keyboard into my bag to use when I can and I use the MBP keyboard when I have to and I make it all work. I haven’t had a problem with it yet, but I go to lengths that should be unnecessary to make sure I don’t.
The design flaw is Jony Ive trying to save another millimeter or two that most people would rather have stuffed full of a real keyboard and a little more battery.
If this is what it takes to get Apple”s attention back on Mac’s, fine with me! Something stronger that a cattle prod is clearly required at this time . Apple has been one of the few companies obsessed with Quality over quantity. Whatever internal doofuses have derailed their manifesto must be boiled in oil.
Looks like I’m in the minority, but I LOVE the butterfly switch keyboard on my Macbook. For me, it is the best keyboard I have ever used!
And, they should promote more and more lawsuits these keyboards are the biggest pieces of junk yet that Apple has put out garbage. All that premium pricing and all we got was junk
Something is upside down at Apple when the concept of “maximum thinness” takes over the whole darn company.
I honestly don’t care about 1, 2, 3 or even 4 millimeters. MBP thickness is truly irrelevant, unless your name is Jony Ive.