The history of Apple devices has lights and shadows. Like practically any other technology, in truth, sometimes it is right and sometimes it fails. The key in these cases, what really makes the difference, is not so much the failure itself, as the response given once it is identified, either before or after it has gone on sale… but especially after. after it has gone on sale, that is, when it is the users who begin to suffer it.
In this regard we have seen cases of all colors, from companies that, preventively, opt for a massive revision and/or substitution plan, to others that try to look the other way and, only if there is no other choice, assume their responsibility, albeit in the most limited way possible. Something that, in the end, can turn against her if the affected users decide to organize and file charges against her.
This, in the case of Apple, has already happened on more than one occasion. The best known case is that of the iPhone 6, for which those from Cupertino have had to face collective lawsuits throughout the world, including our country. And less known, although probably more outrageous (and in this case I speak from my own experience, since I have been a victim of it), the case of the butterfly keyboard, an innovation that went wrong, causing many users to see how the keyboard of their MacBook Air and MacBook Pro stopped working fine. In some cases he did not pick up a beat, and in others he repeated it several times. It was unbearable.
Even so, Apple mounted it on its laptops between 2015 and 2019, and when the first cases began to appear, little less than denied it. this are all affected models in chronological order:
- MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)
- MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2016)
- MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, 2017)
- MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018)
- MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018, four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019)
When it was already impossible to deny the evidence, Apple started a service campaign for the replacement of defective components in, according to the company, very few devices affected. In my case, when I went to an Apple store to make the change, they told me that the problem was that I smoked when using the computer, and that the nicotine caused the failures. However, they told me that they were going to do me the favor of replacing it… I leave the conclusions to you, dear reader.
As we told you at the time, last year a class action lawsuit was launched against Apple in the United States for the butterfly keyboard, and today we know from MacRumors that Apple has finally reached an agreement with the plaintiffs, with compensation that can reach up to $400. Something that may seem like a lot of money, but remembering the slightly more than 3,000 euros that, in my case, I paid for my MacBook Pro 15, well, it doesn’t seem like that much anymore. Not to mention other types of users, who could receive a compensation of 50 dollars.
Apple has provisioned 50 million dollars for the payment of said compensation in the United Statesbut in exchange has been spared a guilty plea by the court, something that has allowed the company to make the following claim:
«Apple denies all of the allegations made in the lawsuit, denies that any MacBook is defective, and denies that Apple did anything improper or illegal. Apple asserts numerous defenses to the claims in this case. The proposed settlement to resolve this case is not an admission of guilt or wrongdoing of any kind by Apple.»
Of course, I can’t help but wonder if, in such a case, the most logical thing would not have been to complete the judicial procedure instead of reaching an agreement with the plaintiffs. If really everything raised by the demand was uncertain, Why give away $50 million to people who have lied by participating in the lawsuit? Maybe because they haven’t lied and indeed the butterfly keyboard was a mistake?
