Apple Wants to Make Keyboards Great . . . Again
Could Glass be the new standard?
Courtesy: US Patent Office
A new Apple patent application has surfaced today detailing how the Cupertino giant could use glass key caps to improve the structural rigidity and appearance of MacBook keys. Given that Mac notebooks already sport glass trackpads and a glass Touch Bar in some pro models, the idea of a glass keyboard does not seem improbable. Let us not forget that Apple already attempted to “reinvent” the keyboard with the release of its long-despised and infamously unreliable butterfly mechanism which plagued its notebook line from 2015-2019.
Should this patent materialize in the form of an actual consumer notebook with glass keys the question remains; Would it be an innovative step forward for a long-standing staple of computing, or another “shattered” vision in an attempt to once again revolutionize the future of typing? Apple’s patent interestingly references the inherent design and engineering challenges associated with developing keyboards that offer long term functionality & favorable form.
Courtesy: US Patent Office
A pleasing exterior appearance of an electronic device is often difficult to pair with the market demand for advanced functionality, improved durability, key definition, and reduced thickness and weight. Some aesthetically pleasing materials may not be sufficiently durable to include in a device housing or other components, and other aesthetically pleasing materials can interfere with the advanced functionality of the electronic device. Some aesthetic materials are brittle, rigid, or difficult to manufacture into key-caps with desired surface features.
According to the patent, glass keyboards offer beneficial gains over traditional designs in that they enable thinner and lighter keyboards with unprecedented durability. The transparent nature of glass could allow Apple to offer more impressive backlit keys where glyphs are layered beneath the glass to mitigate printed key caps from wearing off or accumulating oily discolorations over time.
Courtesy: US Patent Office
These keyboards can benefit from being thin, light, and durable. Glasses, transparent ceramics (e.g., sapphire), transparent polymers, and similar materials can be desirable to use on a surface of keycaps to achieve these objectives. When used as typing surfaces or other touch interfaces, these materials can be durable and difficult to blemish or scratch, even when subjected to millions of use cycles.
They can be made thin while still having high rigidity and stiffness, so keycaps with these materials can be made thin while still being resistant to bending and flexing when pressed. Their transparency or translucency can also be advantageous in keyboards with keys that are backlit or side-lit since they can transfer, reflect, or distribute light. Their surfaces can be smoothed and polished and can resist scratching or other blemishes.
Conclusion:
Though Apple’s problematic butterfly mechanism prioritized thinness over reliability, its glass keyboards will likely retain the traditional scissor switch keyboard mechanism that Apple reverted back to in November 2019 with the release of the 16-inch MacBook Pro. This new design would focus on improving the durability of the keys instead of tweaking the typing mechanism.