[wilkystyle]

I wonder if it could be prone to happenening to laptops ordered from a particular manufacturing center, or from a certain timeframe?

I work at a 300+ person company full of 2016/2017 macbooks and personally own a 2017 macbook pro, and I've not witnessed a single problem from that sample size.

[tptacek]

Just like your sibling comment finds my claim (on a substantially smaller number of laptops) hard to believe, I find your claim impossible to believe. So either you're right and it's somehow regionalized, or people just aren't reporting the problem.

The latter wouldn't surprise me! Lots of people use external keyboards, or just deal with the petty frustration of having to hit certain keys much harder or backspace out the repeats.

[snowwrestler]

For what it's worth, we have about a dozen Mac laptops with the new keyboard in my office and none have keyboard problems (I've asked).

It's obviously a serious issue because Apple has created a special program for it. But, it also seems obvious that only some machines are affected, for whatever reason. Maybe some people just type harder than others.

[mattio]

My laptop makes a case for the opposite. I hardly ever use the built in keyboard on my mbp 2017, but some of my keys are not functioning properly. A colleague of mine has a similar but worse case and had to return it about half a year ago. In total we have three of the mbp's in this office that qualify to be serviced.

Perhaps it's the dusty office? We are located in a old ship hangar.

[derefr]

> regionalized

What if it’s just climate? Dust and humidity are regionalized. Companies in drier, less dusty, less “sticky” climates might see few to no sticky keyboards.

[pvg]

Or their office is just located in a haunted old sawmill that was previously attached to an abattoir.

[tonyedgecombe]

There have been three generations of the new keyboard already, it's quite feasible you both have different versions.

You might also find different working environments have an effect, is their aircon filtering more dust?

[DanBC]

> is their aircon filtering more dust?

Wait, this laptop portable machine can only be used in environments with filtered air?

This "you're holding it wrong" shit is weird.

[xmodem]

we’re trying to narrow down why some people have issues and some don’t, not make excuses for it.

In my office we have no issues across about 20 2016 and 2016 models.

[tonyedgecombe]

I didn't say or imply that.

[firebones]

I wonder if it is like some of the automobile airbag failures and recalls--latitude matters since problems turn out aggravated by heat/humidity.

[wilkystyle]

Yes, you are absolutely right that I may not know of situations, and I definitely meant my experience to be anecdotal, not scientific.

I am not even trying to downplay the fact that it's happening a lot; It just seems so strange to read so many people on hacker news talking about extremely high rates of failure in their sample size, when neither myself nor anyone I've talked to has experienced it.

[matwood]

I read most of the problems are about the 2016 model and not the 2017 model. It could be that people have different versions of the keyboard.