A sub-$1,000 keyboard from the makers of the Optimus Maximus is coming, except it won’t have OLED displays in the keys. To be named Optimus Popularis, it will presumably target the huge untapped market of people for whom a $150 Logitech DiNovo is too cheap, and the original $1,500+ Maximus too pricey.
Our next big release in the Optimus keyboards family will be Optimus Popularis. Shorter than Maximus, it will not use OLED screens, but will be based on a totally different principle.
11 extra keys are above the F-keys now. Price will be below 1000 US$.
From the mockup, it looks like the cost savings will be achieved by replacing the expensive miniature screens with soap.
Art Lebedev Announces Sub-$1,000 Keyboard [Optimus Project via Wired: Gadget Lab]
No, I think that’s butter. So that’s why the shortages.
Why on earth?
I hope it’s lardo, with cured olives buried under the keys – mmmm, input.
I can actually see this becoming useful someday, about ten generations from now. We have people who need to switch from English to Russian, or English to Chinese, and keycaps suck ass. And even li’l ol’ monolingual me would like to be able to change out some unutilized keys for ones I actually use.
But not for a grand.