Sorta is what it is, really. Cherry invented the MX switch, and it’s a very good form factor, but it became standard more through attrition during the ascendency of membrane boards than being drastically better than any of the alternatives.
They didn’t innovate when they still had the patent, didn’t innovate when they still had slightly better product and a lot of brand cachet, and didn’t innovate when COVID blew up mech keyboards as a thing. Their boards were never particularly high end apart from using their good switches and having (back in the day) nice caps, and they sold that good keycap tooling to GMK at some point. Their membrane boards are utterly unremarkable. Even recent Cherry switch offerings are more “catch up” than moving ahead.
The worst part is that the community has been coming up with ideas to improve their product since before the MX patent expired. I get that the hobby side is small compared to OEM and industrial, but there was a long runway to ensure something unique survived and even thrived. Hard to mourn the slow erosion of a B2B industrial supplier’s business model.
Sorta is what it is, really. Cherry invented the MX switch, and it’s a very good form factor, but it became standard more through attrition during the ascendency of membrane boards than being drastically better than any of the alternatives.
They didn’t innovate when they still had the patent, didn’t innovate when they still had slightly better product and a lot of brand cachet, and didn’t innovate when COVID blew up mech keyboards as a thing. Their boards were never particularly high end apart from using their good switches and having (back in the day) nice caps, and they sold that good keycap tooling to GMK at some point. Their membrane boards are utterly unremarkable. Even recent Cherry switch offerings are more “catch up” than moving ahead.
The worst part is that the community has been coming up with ideas to improve their product since before the MX patent expired. I get that the hobby side is small compared to OEM and industrial, but there was a long runway to ensure something unique survived and even thrived. Hard to mourn the slow erosion of a B2B industrial supplier’s business model.