MacBooks with butterfly keyboard mechanism have proven to be plagued with multiple issues. Apple acknowledged the issues multiple times and has improved its service programs by offering free keyboard replacement. However, the company in the past four years has never talked about replacing the whole keyboard mechanism in favour of a new problem-free mechanism.
According to Metro UK, Apple is working on a new keyboard mechanism which will not suffer from the dust issues present in the current butterfly based keyboards. Also being reported is the fact that, the new keyboard design will enable the company to make much thinner laptops compared to the present generation models.
New stronger keyboard?
The patent reads “It is becoming more and more desirable within the industry to reduce the size and/or thickness of various electronic devices.” It also adds, ”With a reduction in size, quantity and/or material used to form the various components, the strength, and ultimately the operational life of the component may be reduced. This may cause the operational life of the keyboard assembly and/or electronic device to be reduced as well.”
It is unclear as to how Apple will tackle the issue of improving the life of keyboard as the current generation models suffer badly because of Apple’s decision to make its laptops thinner. If Apple does decide to make its laptops even thinner by sacrificing the life of keyboards, it will be beaten hard by Mac customers who are already frustrated by the quality of the products.
Do patents confirm the future plans?
It’s also important to note that Apple files multiple patents, some of which never get implemented. So it’s unclear as to whether this thinner keyboard design will make it to the final product.
Apple was initially rumoured to release a reworked 16 inch MacBook Pro at its September iPhone event. However, with no Mac updates at the event, it is now being speculated that the company will update its Mac hardware at the usual October event.