The "double-tap" issue of both a defective keyboard, and a laptop design that had the keyboard physically fused to the case had to be expensive even for Apple.
My experience was a 2017 model developing keyboard issues after ~2.5 years, The repair took a less than 48 hours from drop off to return and it appeared the device went from MN to Texas and back in that time. Additionally since the repair required an entirely new laptop I got a fresh case and battery with zero cycles.
No apple care, no repair fee. It's hard to imagine a scenario where these repairs didn't obliterate the profit from an entire generation of macbooks.
Apple makes a shitty keyboard and it's the best thing to ever happen to Fedex?
Ax ante, the expected value of shipping the butterfly keyboards was probably positive, even if there was some chance they would be called out and lose money in the long run.
I'm also willing to assume that "cheaping out" was not part of the original design vision, and that it became a judgement call later in the development process.
What's important is that, in the long run, these incidents don't really hurt the company as long as they don't happen too often, even if this particular incident lost them more than they gained.
My experience was a 2017 model developing keyboard issues after ~2.5 years, The repair took a less than 48 hours from drop off to return and it appeared the device went from MN to Texas and back in that time. Additionally since the repair required an entirely new laptop I got a fresh case and battery with zero cycles.
No apple care, no repair fee. It's hard to imagine a scenario where these repairs didn't obliterate the profit from an entire generation of macbooks.
Apple makes a shitty keyboard and it's the best thing to ever happen to Fedex?