We have some good news and some bad news
Optimus fanboys, which do you want first? The bad news? Ok, here goes: the Optimus isn't being
shown at CeBIT after all. Yeah, we know, we just caught a huge whiff of rather depressing vapor, but what can you do? If it's not ready to show it's not ready to show. Oh, and if that's not a boot to the gut then how 'bout this: it's not
$1,200 anymore... it's now $1,490. Ouch! Pre-orders start in April with delivery in November/December 2007. Still, there was a bit of good news that came from our meeting with Artemy Lebedev and Dimitry Tosy here at CeBIT in Hannover. First, the Optimus 103 gets a name change. While we were hoping for the Optimus Prime (there's more than meets the eye), it looks like they've settled on Optimus Maximus (the god of gods). Also, all the keys will in fact be OLED with an expected life span of only 5 years, depending upon use of course. Each 32 x 32 resolution OLED will remain stationary. Instead, the key-press mechanics are executed by a plastic cap which slides around the display like a sleeve to keep the wear and tear on the OLEDs to a minimum. Break a key? No problem, replacements will be offered for $10 a pop. Sorry, no freebies in the box like your Xmas tree lights -- we tried. And if you think that $1,490 is a bit too pricey for a 5-year keyboard, take heart: "two or three" additional keyboards are in the works with fewer programmable keys and a sub $1,000 price tag.
posted March 14th 2007 2:02PM
You could buy 2 PS3s and some change for this.
Why do you guys bother trying to justify this keyboard?
There are people out there that purchase $90k VideoCameras for doing Indie/Documentary work.. Red.com comes out with a BETTER VideoCamera and it only costs $17.5k base plus addons, so about $25k for a decent working camera. Regular Prosumers look at that price and say.. OH MY GOD RED I CANT BELIEVE YOU ARE CHARGING so much.. People who don't have a true use for this keyboard are going to say its expensive..because it is..TO THEM..to a design studio with 20-30 employees, they may purchase 25 of these and not think twice about it..People will use it as a BUSINESS EXPENSE..things change just like the price of this keyboard from when it was originally announced. if you dont like it, dont buy it.
Dave R,
You make a good point in your conclusion with "don't like it don't buy it" - but I think your guess that small businesses (i.e. 30 employees) will buy these up as a business expense is short-sighted. EVERY business, publicly or privately owned, has a responsibility to its owners/shareholders. Increasing productivity among the employees may help boost revenue but quality management will ask "at what cost?" and will do at least a very basic "cost/benefit analysis" of the issue at hand. I find it hard to believe that any small business firm with solid management would drop $45k (30 emp. x $1500) to upgrade everyone's KEYBOARDS with negligible (if any) increase in usefulness and/or productivity. In fact, it's RARELY ever cost-effective to ever be on the "bleeding edge" of any technology, so esp. for small businesses it almost never makes good business sense to be an "early adopter" of anything.
People who'll buy this thing when it's available are those who always have to have "the most expensive (insert product type here)" so that they can say it to their friends/colleagues. Personally, I think a $1500 keyboard is ridiculous, but to each his/her own.
Cheers.
Wow. $1500 for a keyboard.
How about I spend that money on a cool vacation? Or a Windows mobile phone and a bunch of accessories and software? Or a really nice laptop? Or a new D-SLR? Or an Xbox 360 and a bunch of accessories and new games? Or, or, or...
Man, you have to want a keyboard BAD to spend this kind of money. Quite frankly, there is no justifiable reason for buying this thing, other than bragging rights - and who cares about that in regard to a keyboard? Not to mention, for this price, that's a stupid way to go for bragging rights. If you want bragging rights for something, you'd be better off spending this much of your money on something else. I commend their inventive efforts, but this thing is just simply too expensive and a waste of money.
Isn't this piece of crap keyboard going to be black and white now ? and wtf is up with the price... I'd bend over and take one for free before I did the same buying this keyboard. PFFFT!
What a piece of useless junk. Why pricetag that POS?
Just a Latin geek out...Optimus Maximus doesn't remotely mean "God of gods". That would be "Deus Deorum". "Optimus Maximus" means "best- greatest". In Roman mythology, Jupiter (Zeus to the Greeks) was referred to as Juppiter Optimus Maximus Soter (Jupiter, the Best, the Greatest, the Savior).
Anyone who would pay that much for a fricking keyboard...well, I sure wouldn't.
So a 5 year life span based on... what? 1 hour use per day? 2 hour use per day? 10 hour use per day?
r they working on a smallet one :) At this museum in sudbury there using the same concept (eg: keys with "pictures" in them)
Optimus... wasn't that the house brand name of Radio Shacks really sucky stereo components back in the 80s?
and here i was thinking about getting Das Keyboard II.... painted on, laser etched, but OLED's? wow, okay, if i had an extra $1.5K. i think ill buy a laptop for college first, thanks.
Hehheh. I see dissapointment turning into sour hate. And apparently engadget is today full of business experts :D
I can see like a thousand cool kids from Hollywood buying this... :P
Little productivity gained for the price of two computers...!!?? Even so, isn't it just plain annoying if the function of a key changes every time? Yes for games it might be useful, but teenagers can't and won't fork out this money and 99% of the adults I know don't play games on a basis that would justify this. On mobile devices they do change key functions, just as annoying but there it's for a reason (too little space for too many functions). That's not the case here I'm afraid.
Seen from that light, it might be useful for Asian alfabets though. But then the pricetag is still way too hefty. Start with LCD... in black & white, like every other technological progress in any human/machine interface... from TV to mobile phone... Just like everyone else!! For crying out loud.
But like this...? Impressive entry, silent exit!
I know PC gamers claim that the hundreds of extra dollars in costs over consoles are worth it, but isn't this somewhat ridiculous? Or is this more for graphics and video pros who use programs like Photoshop a lot?
I understand a lot of people are disappointed with the launch price, but hey, they have to start somewhere. No one else has a device like this and it's obvious it will fall in price eventually. A step in the right direction, I think.
Can I watch a movie in each key? Does it work as a widescreen display? :P
this is a special tool highly qualified designers, video editing etc.
consider this
average salary for a good graphic designer is around 100K per year or more
average billable rate to a client is anywhere from $600 to $1200 per man day
I can see this type of keyboard to increase efficiency of graphic designer by 10-20%
Do the math yourself. It makes a lot of sense for this market.
And yes, if you just want to use a cool OLED keyboard to simply switch languages, it becomes very expensive toy