. Some users consider the existing click of the keyboard an annoyance that could be eliminated. Other suggestions that have been made include tactile feedback without the plunger switch, shorter key travel distances, and lower key pressure requirements (Machrone, 1991, 85-86).
The importance of the medical aspect of the issue to computer manufacturers should be apparent in the number of lawsuits that have been filed over such repetitive injuries. IBM faced 362 such suits nationwide in 1995, though a Minnesota jury found no link between IBM computer keyboards and repetitive stress injuries in one case (Levy, 1995, 1).
Originally, the primary purpose for keyboard design for the computer was to make the keyboard work at all so that it would dependably input keystrokes. Times have changed now that clone personal computers sell for low prices and dozens of PC companies battle over shrinking profit margins, and keyboard design has thus become the epitome of cutting both cost and time to market. Computer hardware is designed and redesigned again within short periods of time, and keyboard designers are also now designing with an eye to the future and to the possibility for future improvement within a few months. One of the major changes taking place at this time is the introduction of a far less expensive membrane offering "tactile feel" to users of keyboards, and this has been winning acceptance over the different "click stroke" keyboards now in use. The latter set the standard for the last two decades, but the new keyboard is much cheaper. There is a $1.1 billion keyboard market worldwide, and it is this market that the designers would like to corner. The goal is to design a membrane keyboard that satisfies users, pleases specifiers, and gains a larger niche of future sales by getting to the market fi
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