“A titan of tech and industrial innovation has been laid low by a mere speck of dust. Last week, Apple quietly announced that they were extending the warranty on their flagship laptop’s keyboard by four years,” Kyle Wiens writes for iFixit. “As it turns out, the initial run of these keyboards, described by Jony Ive as thin, precise, and “sturdy,” has been magnificently prone to failure.”
“The first-gen butterfly keyboard showed up in 2015, but the real root of the problem dates back to 2012 in the very first Retina MacBook Pro. That radical redesign replaced their rugged, modular workhorse with a slimmed-down frame and first-of-its-kind retina display,” Wiens writes. “And a battery glued to the keyboard.”
“The basic flaw is that these ultra-thin keys are easily paralyzed by particulate matter. Dust can block the keycap from pressing the switch, or disable the return mechanism,” Wiens writes. “You can’t switch key caps. And it gets worse. The keyboard itself can’t simply be swapped out. You can’t even swap out the upper case containing the keyboard on its own. You also have to replace the glued-in battery, trackpad, and speakers at the same time. For Apple’s service team, the entire upper half of the laptop is a single component. That’s why Apple has been charging through the nose and taking forever on these repairs. And that’s why it’s such a big deal—for customers and for shareholders—that Apple is extending the warranty. It’s a damned expensive way to dust a laptop.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Aiyiyi.
Form over function will get you every time.
Hey, Jony: Enough with the thin.
Everything is thin enough. Sometimes too thin. (See above.) Thinner isn’t the answer to everything, nor is thinness intrinsic to good design. We’d gladly take a bit more robustness and battery life over more unnecessary thinness, thanks. – MacDailyNews, June 25, 2018
By the way, who’d be in the market for a “MacBook Tough” that’s thicker and heavier, but built like a tank with 3-day battery life?
Eligible models for Apple’s Keyboard Service Program for MacBook and MacBook Pro:
• MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)
• MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2016)
• MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, 2017)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)SEE ALSO:
Apple admits its MacBooks and MacBook Pros are broken – June 25, 2018
Apple announces Keyboard Service Program for MacBook and MacBook Pro – June 23, 2018
Apple’s MacBook butterfly switch keyboards target of second class action lawsuit – May 23, 2018
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
Oh, Please. This is not a big problem, and I’m surprised MDN is going for this clickbait. Apple’s doom is not nigh!
Oh, please. How clueless can you get fanboy.
I went to us the classic see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil emojis. Where are they? …
Weird… GoeB pretending not to be a fanboi
BOTH a fanboy and constructive critic — can’t you tell?
I found the emojis … 🙈🙉🙊
When failure rates start to climb … its a problem.
Some of the customer-side surveys are suggesting that the failure rate could be as high as 5-10% … and while statistically, this value is problematic because its a self-selected sample, the product isn’t all that old yet and the nature of this failure mode probably does fairly well at describing the overall lifecycle failure rate.
And given the motivation (thinness, not lower cost, etc) and the explosion in repair costs, Apple does very much have a big problem on their hands — and one that is entirely self-inflicted.
FWIW, a fairly similar thing happened at Porsche a few years ago (you can Google “IMS failure”) and its been doing damage to their reputation … again, rightfully so … for over a decade.
I add a thick cover to my iPhone 6S because it is too thin. I’d rather have a thicker battery than extra plastic.
Too bad they don’t make thick cases that double as battery packs.
I thought batteries that doubled as cases did exist for iPhones.
Did a simple search for “iPhone Battery Case” and it returned quite a few. How thick did you want the case to be?
Wrong again was trolling. Apparently he caught one 😉
There’s a brand of potato chips called “Thins”. They’re not as thick as some.
/sarcasm, folks.
Why?
Just so it could be .0000125 thinner.
Apple lives in a bubble, no longer in the real world.
“A titan of tech and industrial innovation has been laid low by a mere speck of dust.”
This says it ALL about Apple’s thinness OBSESSION. A speck of dust can bring your pro computer to its knees!!! Seriously?!?
Cook needs to go pronto and the next CEO needs to put the gilded page book designer on a short leash …
The amazing Roger Clyne once sang, “We could find a speck of dust and scribble down our life stories.”
And promptly toast our laptops in the process. 😛
Wow you got your panties in a twist today, G. That time of the month?
I’m sitting here with an old 13″ Macbook Pro. It’s old, but does everything I need a laptop for. However, the trackpad doesn’t click. Either the battery expanded a little bit, or some dust gets in the bottom tray and that just enough to make not enough play for the click to work (previously I got it to work a few times by unscrewing the bottom — it is that old — blowing out the dust and not tightening it up all the way, but eventually the battery had to be replaced to get the trackpad working, and now needs that again). So I was thinking about replacing it — but of course, why bother when I would replacing a laptop with a trackpad that doesn’t click to a new machine with a keyboard that at any time won’t work because of dust. Meanwhile the clamshell G3 works great….
MDN is absolutely correct on this. If I want ultra thinnness I go to my iPad Pro but I want a laptop that can actually work with a longer battery life instead of the garbage I have to deal with on my MacBook Pro. 2-3 hours of working battery life doesn’t cut it for me Apple.
And they said up to 10 hours of battery life lol.
I would love for Apple to go “retro” with it’s Pro offerings in 2019 and beyond…the 2019 Modular Mac Pro, a 17-inch Mac Book Pro, and a 32-inch 5k Cinema Pro Display. I would buy all three in a heartbeat with also getting a total of three of those monitors. If you want to make thin hardware, save it for the consumer side. Give the Pro line the thicker and more powerful options that power hungry users want.
Totally agree would pull the same trigger in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, ARROGANT APPLE is NOT listening…
Amen! Bring back the 17” Pro laptop ..,
I’ve typed over a million words on a 2012 13″ MBP and love the keyboard – slim but solid.
As I mentioned in other threads, I picked up a maxed out refurbed 2015 15″ MBP last week. After a week of writing and over 20,000 words typed on my latest novel, I’m not in love with the keyboard. It’s not as solid as my 2012. I’d hoped it wouldn’t be that noticeable but it is.
Guessing I’ll keep using my 2012 13″ for writing and save the 2015 for everything else.
Jony and Tim, are you listening? ..,
Nah, they couldn’t give a poo. They made a sale and that’s all that matters.
Sad, but true …
GoeB… Jony Ive successor?
Ha, they don’t care.
I have the same model (with SSD and maxed RAM) that I used for years during travel and work.
I think it is the perfect laptop for all the ports and drives.
Got the wife an Air which is the perfect use of thinness.
My sister got a Pro with the 4 USB-C and Touch Bar. Hates it.
I’m almost afraid to say anything.
I’ve complained factually about the Mac Pro and the Mini etc and people say ‘you’re gay bashing Tim Cook’ although I’ve made ZERO references to his sexuality. Complaining now by some as a criticism of Tim Cook’s ‘social stands’.
It’s like if you went to a Fast Food joint and said to the counter person ‘the tables are dirty’ and she snarls “You’re only saying that because I’m a fat/too skinny/too tall/too short woman/man/minority/not a minority person…, also you can’t say our tables are dirty as we’re a socially responsible restaurant… “.
WTF ?
———
Apple’s current products are not all bad but there are some really troubling stuff:
Some years ago I started getting worried posting about Mac Pro (not updated since 2013!)
I was called a ‘Niche’ AND Gay basher.
then the Mini didn’t get updated. then the Air got the forgotten.
The MB lost their ports. Now the MBP has problems. (Note Macs are Apple’s second largest hardware money maker way bigger than Watch or AirPods) . Don’t have time to talk about other stuff like SIRI fell to third place, HomeKit issues, Apple TV remote, the Education Market, products launched without components like iPad Pro with No pencil, HomePod with no stereo .. etc
Do people see the trend now with LOST Of FOCUS on products?
and my opinion has nothing to do with social issues. If you followed Apple for a while you realize today it’s really different than Job’s product laser focus.
I’m writing this at length as this is a serious concern because as Cook wanders off to his obsessions, the SVPs have FOLLOWED his lead. Ive has spent more time on his ‘hobby’ building the campus (Campus designer is listed on his official Apple bio) — one and half year door handles, designer ceiling tiles, ‘specially’ milled tables, four storey glass doors etc, so has Eddy Cue etc. while their responsibilities have fallen down.
(and no I’m not criticizing Ive because I don’t like short haired people… )
—–
MP, MBP, iPad Pro 12.9, iPhone user. Aapl investor.
What is your point? …
get back to product focus as prime objective and you won’t have or at least way fewer ‘keyboard ‘ ‘slow update’ ‘missing component’ etc. issues.
Agreed on product focus …
“… get back to product focus as prime objective” like a 2010 MacPro with a likely 10 year life span.
Do that with the MacBook Pro, Tim … please!
The only difference is I would say is that LOST focus assumes something that was there and was misplaced accidentally, BUT there’s a hope it could be FOUND again. This is more like lack of focus or NO focus. These are areas that, regardless of the profits, Apple sees little value in pursuing. There is no hope that these products will EVER receive the same level of focus again.
“There is no hope” Speak for yourself, you read the comments here …
Thinner and thinner has been Apple’s MO for a long time. Steve Jobs touted the smallness factor. Saturday Night Live parodied the obsession during the IPod’s run back in 2005. https://youtu.be/plx69SIvgWI
Apple should dump the mechanical keyboard and go all touch. Screw those that don’t like it.
I guess I’m too old now that I’ll never accept an all-touch keyboard, no way, no how.
I learned to type on an IBM Selectric at the same time Ollie North was shredding docs for the NSC. I always used an Apple ][ variant growing up and the first year or so of college. Then my school added a ton of computer labs for this new thing called email and the Internet in Fall of ’92. All the labs had IBM PCs so I got used to using them. Then I found the lone Mac lab in early ’93 and the rest is history.
One thing I missed from the PCs was the keyboard. The Mac IIcx keyboards were good, but those PC keyboards were awesome, just not enough for me to switch back. I was having too much fun on the Macs.
Bought my first Mac in ’94 – a PowerMac 7100/66/8/250/CD with a Multi-Scan Display and a LaserWriter Select 360 – gotta love college discounts. Anyway, the keyboard SUCKED!!! Absolute mush.
Anyway, after writing a couple hundred thousand words on my 2012 13″ MBP earlier this year, I fell down the rabbit hole of mechanical keyboards. I never forgot the feel of the PCs from college and found ClickyKeyboards and a refurbished Silver Label Model M from 1988. Now that’s a keyboard!
Apple and others have already tried that. The technology is there. The problem is that it makes for a horrible interface. Any company that pushes a convenient cheap product instead of presenting users the best experience, value, and quality deserves to go out of business.
There is no doubt Apple leadership has been out to lunch for a while now. While bragging about how they waterproofed the iPhones, at the same time they make an unsealed keyboard that cannot be easily cleaned, repaired, or replaced. Apple isn’t even doing well on the easy stuff: Apple’s desktops don’t have the reliability of wired peripherals, now everything requires batteries. Expanded wired keyboard? You gotta buy it from Matias or whatever if you want a decent one. That is just one more hidden Apple Tax that makes Timmy’s company look like jerks. Charging top dollar for antiquated hardware with bad design compromises and bad feature sets is getting to be too much. Apple’s lack of dedication to user enjoyment today is as bad as Microsoft ever was.
Go all touch? Screw those who don’t like it? What about blind people, who can barely type 5 words per minute on an iPhone/IPad keyboard? Ugh! Freaking crap! Just make a real keyboard and keep it like that, freaking Apple. This is why Microsoft is beating Apple, and Apple can’t look past its iPad and Apple Watch enough to see, because Microsoft listens to feedback, especially from their Windows Insiders. Apple, with its beta program, they just wanted to do it because Microsoft did it, that’s all, and no they don’t give it crap. Once the Surface phone comes out, bye-bye Apple. I won’t suffer their arrogance any longer than I have to.
>
Well said. In the REAL world, there’s UI issues with the glossy panel haptic keyboard bit.
For example, I recently had a dealership loaner car while getting service … a Porsche Panamera. A nice week driving a car that’s quite glorious in many ways – – but one way that it was not was the console between the seat, which had been “improved” with a featureless glassy panel which featured haptic.
Net result is that ZERO button-pushing by feel to find the correct button to select: had to take my eyes off the road and look down . every . single . time . that I needed to push one of those selectors.
From an automotive safety standpoint, yes, I said “eyes off the road”. That’s a big fail IMO.
The dealership knew that my current ride was coming up towards the end of its warranty and that loaner car was available as a CPO … but with that UI flaw, I passed.
Every year i grow to hate touchscreens more and more. They are unreliable and offer no feedback. I cannot even count the number of times, on Apple devices and others, where I press a touchscreen button, it gives me a visual or audio response, and then it does not execute the command that was given. Then almost as often, you accidentally actuate something without trying, with no feedback. It’s no just the software, the fundamental problem is that human scale interfaces need to have crisp positive human-friendly feedback. No touchscreen offers this, ever. It’s been proven in many ways too. It takes great concentration to achieve touchscreen proficiency, some people will never have it. The best typists all reach for an older mechanical keyboard versus touchscreens. That will never change.
For car interfaces, it’s an ugly mess out there. Even Porsche struggles to get it right. I personally love the fact that in my Macan GTS, there are like 30 switches on the center console. Each one does a clear precise function and it just works perfectly every time.
Here is another example of an even better cockpit: This is the 1994 McLaren F1 road car. Thanks to design experts who understood the demands of high performance driving, they created what is probably the most perfect driver-focused design ever implemented on a road car. They even put the driver’s seat in the center of the 3-passenger car because that is where it belongs. No touchsreens, no satnav, not gimmicks, no video displays. Apple however is so infatuated with touchscreens, I am assuming it will never again offer users ergonomically friendly physical devices again. The incessant tech industry push to replace, rather than to serve, humans is obvious.
Because Steve J. is no longer around to reign in Ive’s flights of fancy.
The level of misinformation surrounding the MacBook Pro keyboard issue is nothing short of astounding.
The key caps are easily removable to facilitate cleaning of the butterfly mechanism.
Here’s a YouTube link to show folks how:
Nice. Does this also fix the annoying click clacking noise the keyboard made from day one?
Some of us would say that removing each and every key individually to clean under it is boneheaded design. Apple had a better keyboard in every measurable way on the old TiBooks 15 years ago.
You’re a d!qhead plain and simple, D!qtrick
You think Apple would institute a global keyboard repair problem if things were so easy to fix.
You’re not just a d!qhead, D!qtrick, you’re a monumental fuqkwhit.
So fun you and your fuqqing misinformative fuqqing YouTube videos which don’t fuqqing explain why Apple had to institute a fuqqing global recall equivalent
Congratulations on being the biggest fuqqing fuqqer today, D!qtrick