Cherry: "... workforce reduction and relocation of switch production to China"
Cherry: "... workforce reduction and relocation of switch production to China"
14 comments
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That's disappointing, but not surprising. Cherry was very conservative with their switches for such a long time that they got lapped by the OEMs that initially were just making poor clones. I thought they were finally showing some initiative when they released the pre-made Ergo-Clears as well as RGB MX Clears, but I guess it was too little too late.
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The restructuring concept includes, among other measures, the complete discontinuation of switch production at the Auerbach site and its transfer to a partner in China.
Is the partner the Zhuhai Cherry Electronics Co. Ltd. or do they plan to outsource switch production?
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Rust Belt on the Rhine: The deindustrialization of Germany
Put simply, the formula that made Germany Europe’s industrial powerhouse — a highly skilled workforce and innovative companies powered by cheap energy — has come undone.
Feb. 2022 President Biden on Nord Stream 2 Pipeline if Russia Invades Ukraine: "We will bring an end to it." Sep. 2022 Dec. 2022 U.S. LNG exports both a lifeline and a drain for Europe in 2023 Apr. 2025 -
I think there's more than that in mismanagement on the side of the German state, but these are definitely key elements.
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14 comments
So basically they are in trouble and in order to appease their creditor they need to reduce costs? Moving production to China might reduce quality, but Cherry switches are only used in prebuilds for people with no knowledge or experience with custom boards so I don't think it will matter. Unless something big changed from when I stopped paying attention onward, almost nobody puts contemporary Cherry switches in their builds.
All the nice switches are already made in China, and typically cost less than Cherry.
What switches do people use now? I only ever had Cherrys until i switched to buckling springs. Most boards i see in stores dont seem to use Cherry, there is some sort of sheath on the switch stems now.
I still have one Cherry green board i really like. It seems built to last, and the switches feel great.
The "now" part I'm not sure about because I'm out of the hobby for some years. The "people" part depends on who we are talking about. Maybe Cherry is still popular in boards you can buy in shops or on big online stores, I don't know. But in my time, Cherry was far from a popular choice to put in custom keyboards. Almost all switches used were cherry style switches, meaning they fit the same keycaps, are roughly of the same size, fit in the same pcb's, etc. But people usually get them from other companies, eg Kailh, Gateron, etc. There is just more choice in terms of materials, colours, bump profile, smoothness, springs, click mechanism, you name it. It was also common to combine switches, like using the top of one switch with the bottom of another or swap stems. Other brands were perceived to be higher quality. Cherrys were known for being scratchy instead of smooth, having a weak tactile bump, clicky variations being rattly instead of crisp as well as lacking in some other areas such as stem wobble and sound. For example, I'm typing right now on Gateron Ink Black v2 switches lubed with Tribosys 3204, filmed with Kebo films and springs swapped for bag lubed Tx L 16mm 62gr springs. On the other hand, there is a smaller group of people that is all about vintage Cherry switches, desoldering them from old boards to use them in new builds. The sheath on the stem switches you saw are probably some sort of box switches (I think it's supposed to reduce stem wobble and thus smoothness in practice).