That would be understandable for the consumer focused lineups but most manufactures also produce business models which are bought to create something and still suffer from the same problem. As can be seen in the example of the Thinkpad keyboards were already better but somehow they decided to worsen them.
> the power users (remaining audience) is willing to pay for nice tools.
As said there already is this business/consumer split and it has been for many years. Business is where the money is made, not at the consumer front where it can't be cheap enough, yet the devices inside this category weirdly are more and more designed not to be the workhorses they are supposed to be.
https://twitter.com/chuckmoyes/status/868582082896830464
It's such a shame to see them go downhill:
I think consumer masses moving away from the laptop market has a dire implications for this market (far less competition, expect premium prices). But on the plus side it should shift the market towards productivity, which is a big plus for some of us.
I also have a cheapo lenovo thinkpad 2 in 1 that has a surprisingly good keyboard. I say this as someone who has ridiculously snobbish keyboard taste. They're out there!
Even for people creating stuff. The touchpad is way more important than the keyboard as a developer. I can spend a lot of time scrolling, scrolling, reading code and documentation and stuff. Ok there is a lot of shortcuts involved, but keyboard quality needs to be real bad before it becomes a show stopper.
Sure there are days were I code all day. But even there, the IDE is doing a lot of the work too. In a language like java, you never have to type a method, class or variable name beyond the first time you defined them. And the IDE will even suggest good enough variable names.
Now that I'm thinking off, this is probably the longest sequence of word that I have written unassisted for the day. Commenting on HN, or documentation, or email is what a good keyboard is useful for.
It seems there are quite a few people out there who not only need keyboards but they even try and make them work with devices built to be entirely touch centric.
Don't forget porn!
It's a joy to mindlessly surf the web, but a pain in the ass to do most other things.
Their second generation, butterfly keyboards are amazing once you get used to it and aren't some indication that they are abandoning content creators.
2. You can set it to permanently show control keys.
3. It's optional. You can buy the model without it.
4. Some of us actually like it. I use IntelliJ every day and it's great to be able to have dedicated refactor/debug keys instead of having to remember arcane key commands.
You can set it to permanently show images of control keys, on a flat surface. If I wanted a tablet I'd buy a tablet; keys have boundaries between them, push down and spring up, and otherwise respond to fingers in ways that a tablet doesn't.
some people seem to think that apple is in the business of personally catering to their every whim.
i totally get why you wouldn’t like the touch bar, but you don’t have to buy that model. in fact, you don’t have to buy a macbook at all.
it’s also pretty astonishing to me how many people vehemently hate this thing they’ve never even tried to use.
I'm yet to meet a single person who likes the touch bar after 1 month.
How many Macbook Pro users have you surveyed ? And how do you think that compares to Apple who clearly did some product marketing work before adding a very expensive new feature.
The only problem is the lack of ESC key really, but after you remap it to Caps Lock everything is good again.
https://arstechnica.com/video/2016/11/the-2016-13-and-15-inc...
https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/
And for more money you can spec them identically.
And not the same CPUs. Max CPU speed without Touch Bar is 2.5Ghz, while the Touch Bar models begin at 3.1Ghz.
Different GPUs as well: Iris Plus 640 v Iris Plus 650.
It's a downgrade: the pre-touchbar MacBook Pros (and the touchbar ones) have 3x3 MIMO wifi/BT chipsets.
It's like 10 years ago when first MacBooks came out with chiclet keys, while all other manufacturers used previous design (most of them finally shifted to chiclet by now). Typing on a regular laptop now feels like masochism.
As to your strange preferences, I cannot understand them. Buckling spring keyboards are far more tactile and I resent that I cannot get them on "premium" products any more.
That would make too much sense, Apple haven't done sense for a while now - people have called Apple form over function for a long time except now it's actually true, at least WRT their laptops.
Curious - what makes them so "amazing"?
Speaking only for myself-- going back to the 80s, there has only ever been one keyboard that I've ever used that I couldn't get used to (Surface Pro Touch keyboard). For all the others, once I got used to them, I never really felt like one was better than another, just different.
I know that one hurts my fingers after typing for a few hours, and the other one is pretty comfortable after that same time.
The answer is right there: no, most people barely touch the keyboard. Most people are not using laptops as tools to create anything. Most people do nothing but look at Reddit/Facebook endless stream of entertainment and scroll, scroll, scroll. Apple understood this early on and they made the perfect laptop for scrolling, which is now available in Air, Pro and Regular flavors. These aren't for typing.
As long as majority of laptop buyers are content consumers, this is not going to change. However...
It will change. The content consumption has been shifting to mobile: the phones and tablets are taking over. Once a laptop once again becomes primarily a _tool_, decent keyboards (and maybe even tall screens!) will come back, just look at the desktops. As traditional desktops have been 100% abandoned by consumers, the mechanical keyboards and high quality IPS monitors made a smashing comeback, the power users (remaining audience) is willing to pay for nice tools.