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Why have we not seen the butterfly keyboard used since that Thinkpad, or have I not been looking carefully enough? The design seems to have been positively rec
by tclmeelmo 11y ago
Why have we not seen the butterfly keyboard used since that Thinkpad, or have I not been looking carefully enough? The design seems to have been positively received and fondly remembered. Have the problems it solved been solved in other ways (like proliferation of widescreens)?
- atemerev 11y agoBecause it is expensive and contains quite a lot of moving parts, requiring precision engineering and possibly manual assembly. I doubt these were scalable to mass production. (Additionally, it contributed to the thickness of assembly — tho those who don't remember, Thinkpad 701 was _incredibly_ thick). I owned a 701c, the keyboard was clearly better than anything available today.
- atemerev 11y agoAnother example is "Big Berta" (IBM T220/T221), a 21" screen with full 4K resolution available back in 2001! It offered PPI resolution better than modern Retina displays. It was insanely expensive, though.
- agumonkey 11y agoPics just in case http://sishardware.com/unt/4293-ibm_t220t221_22___2__display_monitor_4k_3__840_x_2__400.html http://sishardware.com/unt/4293-ibm_t220t221_22___2__display...
- mrbill 11y agoMore info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_T220/T221_LCD_monitors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_T220/T221_LCD_monitors
- chiph 11y agoBack when IBM had an outlet store in RTP (at the Morrisville outlet mall), I asked one of the employees there about the keyboard and why it wasn't carried forward to new models. He said they had a lot of returns on them, as the cam that controlled the sliding-puzzle-action when the lid was opened wore more quickly than expected. It really was a unique design and got the Thinkpad line a lot of good press, so I think it was successful in that aspect.