Apple’s Butterfly Keyboard Fiasco Leads to a $50M Settlement
Apple has settled a class action over the controversial butterfly keyboards found in some MacBook models, agreeing to shell out $50 million to customers affected by the unreliable typing surface.
The suit claimed that Apple knew about potential problems with its keyboards but sold devices that utilize them anyway. The settlement has not yet been approved by a judge, but once it is, customers who purchased MacBooks with butterfly keyboards in seven US states between 2015 and 2019 would be eligible for payouts between $50 and $395.
Apple’s butterfly keyboards utilized a superthin switch, the mechanism beneath each key that registers a key press. The company debuted the butterfly keyboard in 2015 on the fourth-generation MacBook. Reviewing the laptop for WIRED, David Pierce gave it an 8/10 rating and called it the “future of computers.” (Forgive us, we knew not what it would become.) Butterfly keys were almost flush with the laptop body and had very little travel when you pressed them. Their compact size helped Apple shave a few millimeters off the depth of its MacBooks. Unfortunately, that ultrathin design also meant the keys were prone to breaking or just not typing properly. Something as small as some bits of dust could get beneath them and render them inoperable.
