Cheaper, how? Are we looking only at production cost, or total lifetime? How much energy does a button use over its lifetime, vs a checkbox on a LED screen?
In this context, I'd imagine cheaper from an R&D + Manufacturing side. But equally this probably is the case - if adding a screen requires adding a much more powerful microcontroller to drive it, it probably adds a fair bit of cost
Curious, because I thought the reason nobody did buttons anymore was that printing a pattern on a touch capacitive surface was dirty cheap.
Whereas I assume tactile buttons require a lot work when mounting/building the product.
Am I wrong?
I guess an 8 digit display is still cheaper than a touch screen :)