Optimus Vaporware

[Aprox]

There is some more info on the now infamous Optimus LCD keyboard

http://community.livejournal.com/optimus_project/

They are now going to be B/W keys, with color keys coming out at a later date for a much higher cost.


EDIT: Thanks

 

[ElementalDragon]

well..... OLED keys, not LCD keys. and yeah.... i read about that earlier. kinda sucks, even though i wasn't planning on buying one of those keyboards to begin with. still a neat idea though. it's like a Zboard... without having to buy specially made attachment sets for it.

 

[ray_gillespie]

Looks cool though - when manufacturing costs come down it could be a good way to make a "one-language-fits-all" keyboard to be sold internationally, so keyboards for all languages could be made in the same run, which might make it cheaper!

May be about 50 years away from that though!!

 

[Aprox]

I found a little more info on the keyboard, especially pricing and profits. Interesting read.

http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/11/30/art_lebedev_keyboard/

 

[SPeedY_B]

It's still a good idea and product even with monochrome keys, I think colour might of been too distracting.

 

[Aprox]

Thats true, I never thought about it being distracting. What I find interesting about that article is the speculation on profit margins, THG speculated the cost of the keyboard would be under $100 to manufacture. I think a 1000+% profit is just being ridiculous. The argument can be made that they need the money based on the fact that its not going to make huge market penetration. Although I would imagine they would sell a hell of a lot more units if they lowered the price to say 200 - 400$ I know I would personally spend 200 - 300 at the most for the BW version, maybe closer to 500 for the color version. (assuming you could adjust the OLED brightness of the keys.)

 

[SPeedY_B]

Well we'll get the price in 10-days.

They've always insisted on it being less than a decent phone, however, that really depends on your definition of 'decent'. I think the $200 - $250 mark is fair.

 

[ShepsCrook]

I like the idea of the board. It also depends on it's warrenty. Those LEDS or whatever will be in them will get a lot of wear and tear and might burn out or wirepoints / solder points could get damaged from use...