{"id":39303,"date":"2023-05-08T14:40:14","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T18:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=39303"},"modified":"2023-05-08T14:42:22","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T18:42:22","slug":"the-downfall-of-brydge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/05\/08\/the-downfall-of-brydge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Downfall of Brydge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chance Miller<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Brydge, a once thriving startup making popular keyboard accessories for iPad, Mac, and Microsoft Surface products, is ceasing operations. According to nearly a dozen former Brydge employees who spoke to 9to5Mac, Brydge has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs within the past year after at least two failed acquisitions.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Those former Brydge employees largely attribute the company’s failure to mismanagement during growth, misleading statements from its two co-CEOs, and an overall hostile working environment that led to a high turnover rate.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The response to the first iteration of the Brydge Pro+ was mixed at best. At that point, iPadOS 13 didn’t offer native trackpad support, so Brydge was forced to rely on a workaround using Apple’s Assistive Touch accessibility feature. It was far from an ideal solution, and the early reviews made that clear.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Just three months later, Brydge was hit with a major surprise when Apple unveiled the Magic Keyboard<\/a> for iPad Pro, its first iPad keyboard accessory with a built-in trackpad. Alongside that, Apple released iPadOS 13.4 with native trackpad support<\/a> without using the Assistive Touch accessibility feature.<\/p>\n

iPadOS 13.4 did not make the full suite of trackpad capabilities offered by the Magic Keyboard available to third parties like Brydge, however. […] The sentiment among Brydge executives and employees was that Apple left them out to dry while giving Logitech special access to its software.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n