If there was a museum of terrible technology, Apple's butterfly keyboard would be right up there with Windows ME, the Virtualboy, Juicero, etc.
(Also removing Magsafe was clearly a dumbass decision. And at some point people will realize that current Apple laptops are once again thick enough to have K-lock slots again.)
I'm a light typer though, I think heavier handed typists suffered with it.
The old MBP had 1.5mm Key travel. They could have cut it to 1.2 or 1.3. Instead they went with 0.7 with the butterfly and later 1mm to the new scissor. Light typer generally dont "dislike" slightly more key travel. But those who cant adopt to small key travel "hate" the new keyboard.
I still think it is the wrong trade off.
It's obvious: they thought they could get away with it. The settlement is for $50m. If they saved $50m on keyboards then it was worth it for them.
My experience was a 2017 model developing keyboard issues after ~2.5 years, The repair took a less than 48 hours from drop off to return and it appeared the device went from MN to Texas and back in that time. Additionally since the repair required an entirely new laptop I got a fresh case and battery with zero cycles.
No apple care, no repair fee. It's hard to imagine a scenario where these repairs didn't obliterate the profit from an entire generation of macbooks.
Apple makes a shitty keyboard and it's the best thing to ever happen to Fedex?
Ax ante, the expected value of shipping the butterfly keyboards was probably positive, even if there was some chance they would be called out and lose money in the long run.
I'm also willing to assume that "cheaping out" was not part of the original design vision, and that it became a judgement call later in the development process.
What's important is that, in the long run, these incidents don't really hurt the company as long as they don't happen too often, even if this particular incident lost them more than they gained.
Jony believed the butterfly keyboard was his crowning achievement & legacy, and was willing to fight to the death to preserve it. Loss of the butterfly keyboard was actually the definitive factor in Jony Ive's departure.
Haha haven't seen many references to this recently. Not gonna lie, was cool, way ahead of it's time but yeah, not the best overall experience.