Apple hit with class action lawsuit over the faulty keyboard design of its MacBook and MacBook Pros
The complaint included multiple claims of an issue with the design of Apple's butterfly keyboard mechanism included in MacBook variants manufactured since 2015 and on MacBook Pro models since 2016. According to a report by Apple Insider, there were thousands of owners who reported have some kind of an issue with their keyboard.
The suit states that the design of the keyboard is such that it resists very little amounts of debris or dust, which leads to unregistered keystrokes. In several cases, the failure of the keyboard to register keystrokes forced a lot of users to take their laptops in for servicing, which is a very expensive undertaking when out of warranty. The cost of replacing an affected keyboard is in the $700 range, a ridiculous price, but an unavoidable one for Apple customers. Apple chose to design its keyboard in such a way that to replace it, one would also have to replace the upper panel and several attached components.
The suit goes on to cite numerous complaints from users who posted about issues with the butterfly switches online, including those on Apple's own Community Support forums.
Apple introduced the butterfly mechanism with its 12-inch MacBook in 2015 with Phil Schiller advertising the new low-profile switches as both more responsive (four times more) and robust than traditional scissor-type components. The butterfly mechanism switches later made their way into Apple's professional laptop range with the redesigned MacBook Pro in 2016 with a second-generation design. The keyboard was advertised as being more responsive and comfortable than its previous iteration.