Brydge, a company that once wanted to make high-quality iPad keyboards that almost transformed them into MacBooks, has gone out of business. The company’s website is just a logo, employees and pre-order customers haven’t heard from it in months, and 9to5Mac has a detailed story of Brydge’s demise, backed up by conversations with nearly a dozen former employees.
You’d have to read the entire study if you want to know how mismanaged growth, a hostile workplace, the pandemic, and the nerve-racking nature of working with and alongside Apple led to Brydge’s shuttering. You read about business, leadership and marketing decisions that point to an inevitable conclusion in hindsight. But there’s also an inside story about what it’s like to match your car to the whims and preferences of the world’s largest technology company.
Brydge is best known for making Apple accessories, especially keyboard cases for iPads, with a focus on materials, design and functionality that wanted to go beyond Apple’s own accessories. They were made of aluminum, had a more laptop-like hinge, and their keyboards were backlit. In October 2019, Brydge tried to get a six-month head start on Apple by releasing the Pro+ for iPad Pro that comes with the trackpad. Since iPadOS 13 didn’t have native trackpad support – which was due to arrive in March 2020 with iPadOS 13.4 – Brydge’s keyboard used an Assistive Touch accessibility solution. The trackpad and its implementation disappointed critics like Jason Snell of Six Colors.
When Apple’s Magic Keyboard arrived in April 2020, it took it a step further with not only full trackpad software support and a great Apple-made pad, but multi-finger gestures that Apple wouldn’t offer to Brydge. However, Apple offered them to market leader Logitech for its Combo Touch Case. Brydge was clearly caught off guard by the Apple and Logitech products that hit the market just months later. When Apple reached out to Brydge to provide better access to its trackpad, Brydge gladly accepted — and soon got a lesson in power dynamics, according to 9to5Mac sources.
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“Apple wanted Brydge to take the lead in unpacking the framework used by the Magic Keyboard in a way that allows for the use of third-party accessories,” writes Chance Miller. Apple offered support, but Brydge’s questions would raise Apple’s questions about whether Brydge was a valuable partner and whether it needed Apple’s help “too early in the process.” Apple refused to provide debugging tools and answered technician questions with suggestions rather than immediate solutions.
All the while, Brydge’s not-quite-fixed Pro+ suffered a return rate of more than 20 percent. Brydge couldn’t tell customers about his work with Apple on his trackpad, under a confidentiality agreement. Full trackpad support will arrive in February 2021, almost a year after Logitech and Apple products. The company continued to spend marketing money on the Pro+, a vital product that would fund further expansion. Now that you’ve gotten this far in the post, you probably know how that’s going to turn out.
From there, Brydge would hunger for acquisition, first by Razer and then Targus, and possibly even Foxconn. High product return rates, exceptionally high staff turnover and many financial question marks would follow. Employees laid off after a failed takeover in January still owe their last payout, and most people who reserved the ProDock in January haven’t heard back yet. Brydge issued a press release that its brand and intellectual property were “acquired by a third party through a foreclosure process initiated by its senior lender” and has ceased operations.
Again, you can read more about what happened at 9to5Mac.
Frame image by Brydge
