A new report claims that Apple is planning to replace the technology for the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro keyboards. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who published the report, sourced this prediction from Apple’s supply chain.
Kuo claims that the new keyboard designs will be featured in the MacBook Air models that will be launched in the fall and the MacBook Pro models that will be launched sometime next year. The new mechanism, dubbed “scissor-switch,” will replace the outdated “butterfly” mechanism, which received mostly negative reviews from users. The consistent criticism described a malfunctioning keyboard, reporting dropped keystrokes and repeated keystrokes and several other issues.
Apple introduced the butterfly keyboard mechanism in 2015 and, ever since then, users have been struggling with it. Some of them reported that issues could sometimes be fixed by blowing compressed air under the keyboard to clean it from any dust and debris, but this is not a permanent fix, and it doesn’t work all the time. Others even reported that they needed to replace the keyboard altogether to get it to function normally.
Apple’s Future MacBook Models Will Feature A New Keyboard Mechanism
The latest MacBook Pro model released earlier this year sports a redesigned butterfly keyboard mechanism. According to Apple, the updated keyboard is made up of new materials that promise to solve the issues. Even more, Apple Stores now offer a free keyboard replacement to MacBook, for MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro owners.
If Kuo’s report is accurate, the new keyboard will eliminate any possibility of future issues with Apple keyboards. This permanent fix would be a smart move from the company since they will be able to prevent the need for the previous measures.
However, Kuo’s report is not an official announcement and, as we all know, rumors should always be taken with a grain of salt. Indeed, Kuo’s predictions usually end up being true, but we should wait for an official announcement from Apple to know for sure if the scissor-switch keyboard will be implemented.
Dorothy has been a journalist for ten years and has been working with the Tech News Watch staff since the beginning of the news site. Her main contribution to Tech News Watch are mobile, IT and science news, with a focus on software updates and great outer space discoveries.