Apple is planning to ditch the controversial butterfly keyboard used in its MacBooks since 2015 in favour of a new design, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
In the report obtained by MacRumours, Kuo said Apple will instead use a new keyboard design based on scissor switches.
He said this new design should provide better key travel and durability than the more “failure-prone” butterfly keyboard.
He also believes that the new keyboard will also be used in the MacBook Pro, but not until 2020.
“The new keyboard could improve the typing experience by offering longer key travel and durability by adopting glass fibre to reinforce the keys’ structure,” Kuo said.
“We believe the partially refreshed MacBook Pro models will also adopt a new scissor keyboard in 2020; shipments of MacBook models equipped with a new scissor keyboard will grow 500-700 per cent YoY in 2020.”
“Though the butterfly keyboard is still thinner than the new scissor keyboard, we think most users can’t tell the difference.”
“Furthermore, the new scissor keyboard could offer a better user experience and benefit Apple’s profits; therefore, we predict that the butterfly keyboard may finally disappear in the long-term.”
The introduction of the butterfly keyboard was part of an effort to make laptops thinner and lighter.
Since then, the keyboard design has been plagued with reliability issues and its low-travel design has not been popular with Mac users.
Following years of user complaints and a few class action lawsuits, Apple initiated a worldwide MacBook keyboard replacement program.
Time will tell whether the new design can fix a lot of issues users faced with the butterfly keyboard.
