Art Lebedev opens minimus Optimus Store in New York
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Aug 11th 2008 2:33AM
posted Aug 11th 2008 2:33AM
There it is, Art Lebedev's new Optimus Store in New York, NY. It's not so much a store as it is a kiosk sitting inside of RCS Computer Experience at 575 Madison Ave. Guess they're just waiting for demand of the $1,500 $1,877 keyboard market to pick-up before busting out the trowel and mortar.
Its not very welcoming.
From just a glance, youd have no idea what they sell.
Why would they put the poster sideways so customers have to turn there heads to see what the kiosk is all about.
oh wait, this is about the keyboard?
wouldn't an engadget article about the keyboard with a picture of the keyboard at a 45 degree angle been just as effetive?
how incredibly...useful...
Deadwing > In Absentia (> Lightbulb Sun > Stupid Dream/FoaBP)
Just sayin'.
For those wondering HUHWUT, it's in reference to the album-cover avatar.
Just gave a listen to Deadwing and that shit sucks. wtf.
Anyone want to hi jack an optimus shipment with me? call me at 212-555-5555.
Minimus products. Minimus sales.
look at the crowd of anxious people in there ready to buy one :)
I'd say they're doing pretty well. After all, there is just ONE left setting on that shelf to the right.
still snuck in an apple plug!
not to mention the art lebedev speaker looks an awful lot like the logo used for my volume hotkeys on my mac... coincidence? I think not
[/sarcasm]
Why don't they just start selling Maximus keyboards at Walmart? Now that's the way to reach the masses.
How often do you see someone spending $1000 at Wal-mart?
I'm not sure, I don't work there (unfortunately).
hehe. dan halen awesome name.
have any of you read the wal mart effect?
Those chairs look like they might hurt. I guess it's an inventive way to make them ignore the pain from the use of the keyboard.
Smart marketing team, I swear.
and what the hell is the object of the chair in the far corner? so you can sit beside a poster and the box for the keyboard??
No, it is for the salespeople. Do you really think they are going to stand up during the hour or so between customers?
They're actually cheap knockoffs of the LEM Piston Stool, which is actually way more comfy than it looks.
Wow, they still don`t get it apparently. Either there are a crap load of fools paying 1800$ for a keyboard, or Art Lebedev are really stubborn.
I'm going with stubborn.
I especially like what they've done with the corner... The rats nest of wires and the dunce stool really tie the whole setting together.
I love the OPTIMUS KEYBOARD, but for $1800+, I'll head off Wal-Mart to buy a dozen (Programmable?) USB keyboards, a sharpie marker, and a USB hub. Every time I need a specialized keyboard (Photoshop, etc), I'll open a box, take my sharpie and write what ever symbol I need over the silkscreened letter and hot swap the boards on the fly. This essentially does the same thing (though not as well) as the Optimus and saves me more than $1500!
Here are some other alternative ideas to the overpriced yet lovely Optimus Maximus:
You could purchase a few sets of X-Keys professional or X-Key 128 and insert under each key what ever picture you need for your application. You can buy a dozen X-Key Professional for the price of one Optimus. Buy more than one if you have multiple applications.
http://www.xkeys.com/xkeys.php
Cherry also makes keyboards that allow you to create your own keys and labels. Buy two and still have money left over for a new PC.
http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/keyboards/POS/index.htm
http://www.xkeys.com/pigraphics/grxkeys/keycaps200.jpg
There are a lot of other alternatives, but Engadget won't let me post more than three URL's so I won't go in to any further detail.
Great bunch of links. Cheers.
They probably need to move just about 10 units of the keyboard to recover the cost of this store...
"On 08.08.08 our 8th offline retail location is opened in New York."
They have seven others too, apparently.
wtf?
Though, why buy one decent-sized store, when you can get 8 for that price and increase your chances of sales. I like their thinking, too bad I can't imagine someone actually buying one from the kiosk.
.
08/08/08? It's so mean of them to upstage the Olympics like that.
Unless they can con people into thinking they're prestigous like a jeweller, this has no hope. "You can make the little pictures on the keys change" just isn't enough of a "wow" to most people that it warrants an extra $1,500 over the price of an "expensive" keyboard of today (e.g: logitech diNovo).
Store shrinkage is going to be a matter of life and death for these guys, isn't it?
"Stop that man, he stole two thousand dollars worth of merchandise from that kiosk!"
"What'd he steal that's worth two thousand dollars?!"
"A keyboard!"
Is there an "I Am Rich"-key on the keyboard?
you could make one
You wouldn't need one after buying the Optimus.
OR, how about I'm stupid I paid so much for this key?? prob. have to put it on the space bar. L ;-)
Until that decimal moves one place to the left this thing will fail, fail, fail.w
I'm not interested in the stores or even the keyboards -- I'd like to read about the people who are buying them.
This store is literally 1 block from where I work... I might check it out. Other than that though, it's an electronics store on Madison Avenue. I never buy stuff there because it is always very pricey.
Then they have a captive audience.
http://store.artlebedev.com/computer_add-ons/
I've lived in NYC for almost ten years and I'd never heard of RCS Experience (the store where this is sold).
First rule of using keyboard effectively is not to watch down the keys.
I mean good writter do not bangs his head up and down to aim the key.
That keyboard is geared towards PC user noobs. So good luck finding someone with a deep pocked there.
I see this piece of creativity as a next item to be reviewed at DesignFail.org blog :)
Oh, I forgot to mention the URL:
http://www.designfail.org">http://www.designfail.org
Stay tuned
"That keyboard is geared towards PC user noobs" hahaha I'm rolling off my chair here. Try musicians, designers, doctors, video editors who use Avid. 42 comments and nary an intelligible one.
Oh man! I was just there on Sunday to just look around. Apparently I didn't look hard enough, 'cause I didn't even notice it - even though the picture of the kiosk looks familiar. I guess it didn't stick out to me, eh?