Art Lebedev opens minimus Optimus Store in New York

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.

[Chris Anderson @ Aug 11th 2008 2:40AM]

how incredibly...useful...

[The Dude @ Aug 11th 2008 2:45AM]

Deadwing > In Absentia (> Lightbulb Sun > Stupid Dream/FoaBP)

Just sayin'.



For those wondering HUHWUT, it's in reference to the album-cover avatar.

[A.C.E.R. @ Aug 11th 2008 3:08AM]

Just gave a listen to Deadwing and that shit sucks. wtf.

[OneLove @ Aug 11th 2008 10:16AM]

Anyone want to hi jack an optimus shipment with me? call me at 212-555-5555.

[Blackstar @ Aug 11th 2008 1:20PM]

Minimus products. Minimus sales.

[Ryan @ Aug 11th 2008 2:41AM]

look at the crowd of anxious people in there ready to buy one :)

[The Dude @ Aug 11th 2008 2:48AM]

I'd say they're doing pretty well. After all, there is just ONE left setting on that shelf to the right.

[Adderz @ Aug 11th 2008 2:41AM]

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.

[neofolklore @ Aug 11th 2008 7:38AM]

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?

[jaalin @ Aug 11th 2008 2:42AM]

still snuck in an apple plug!

[Colin Potter @ Aug 11th 2008 2:57AM]

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]

[Dan Halen @ Aug 11th 2008 2:48AM]

Why don't they just start selling Maximus keyboards at Walmart? Now that's the way to reach the masses.

[waiownsyou @ Aug 11th 2008 2:56AM]

How often do you see someone spending $1000 at Wal-mart?

[Dan Halen @ Aug 11th 2008 3:27AM]

I'm not sure, I don't work there (unfortunately).

[roberto luongo @ Aug 11th 2008 9:35AM]

hehe. dan halen awesome name.

have any of you read the wal mart effect?

[waiownsyou @ Aug 11th 2008 2:56AM]

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.

[Colin Potter @ Aug 11th 2008 2:59AM]

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??

[SamsLembas @ Aug 11th 2008 3:32AM]

No, it is for the salespeople. Do you really think they are going to stand up during the hour or so between customers?

[Beau @ Aug 11th 2008 11:48AM]

They're actually cheap knockoffs of the LEM Piston Stool, which is actually way more comfy than it looks.

[substance90 @ Aug 11th 2008 3:19AM]

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.

[gt2378b @ Aug 11th 2008 6:24AM]

I'm going with stubborn.

[Sean D. @ Aug 11th 2008 3:20AM]

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 CAPS LOCK KEY @ Aug 11th 2008 3:40AM]

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.

[tekdroid @ Aug 11th 2008 11:32AM]

Great bunch of links. Cheers.

[Atul Agarwal @ Aug 11th 2008 3:50AM]

They probably need to move just about 10 units of the keyboard to recover the cost of this store...

[Gav @ Aug 11th 2008 3:55AM]

"On 08.08.08 our 8th offline retail location is opened in New York."

They have seven others too, apparently.

[Prasand J. @ Aug 11th 2008 5:15AM]

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.




.

[Harry Wagstaff @ Aug 11th 2008 5:46AM]

08/08/08? It's so mean of them to upstage the Olympics like that.

[somewhatboxes @ Aug 11th 2008 5:19AM]

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!"

[happy_penguin @ Aug 11th 2008 6:25AM]

Until that decimal moves one place to the left this thing will fail, fail, fail.w

[gt2378b @ Aug 11th 2008 6:32AM]

I'm not interested in the stores or even the keyboards -- I'd like to read about the people who are buying them.

[XenoX101 @ Aug 11th 2008 6:34AM]

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).

[Gerald @ Aug 11th 2008 7:41AM]

Is there an "I Am Rich"-key on the keyboard?

[bRa!nZ @ Aug 11th 2008 6:10AM]

you could make one

[bl0nde @ Aug 11th 2008 2:32PM]

You wouldn't need one after buying the Optimus.

[lanejasper69 @ Aug 11th 2008 4:24PM]

OR, how about I'm stupid I paid so much for this key?? prob. have to put it on the space bar. L ;-)

[matthewmrussell @ Aug 11th 2008 9:16AM]

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.

[Matt E. @ Aug 12th 2008 4:51PM]

Then they have a captive audience.

[eric f. @ Aug 11th 2008 9:35AM]

I've lived in NYC for almost ten years and I'd never heard of RCS Experience (the store where this is sold).

[Ileon @ Aug 11th 2008 9:36AM]

http://store.artlebedev.com/computer_add-ons/

[white_ultras @ Aug 11th 2008 10:11AM]

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.

[Teo @ Aug 11th 2008 7:11PM]

I see this piece of creativity as a next item to be reviewed at DesignFail.org blog :)

[Teo @ Aug 11th 2008 7:16PM]

Oh, I forgot to mention the URL:
http://www.designfail.org">http://www.designfail.org
Stay tuned

[arthurmlee @ Aug 11th 2008 10:13PM]

"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.

[Jason Stewart @ Aug 11th 2008 10:46PM]

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?