X-bit labs

Art Lebedev Claims Optimus Keyboards Prices Set to Drop.

Category: Multimedia

by Anton Shilov

[ 01/08/2008 | 11:42 PM ]

Art Lebedev, a leading design studio from Russia best known for its innovative gadgets, said in a brief interview that the price of the Optimus Maximus keyboard is set to drop in future. The price drop will not only allow Optimus Maximus keyboards to become more popular among end users, but change the landscape of the whole keyboard industry.

The price of Optimus Maximus and other Optimus keyboards with OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screens inside keys would go down once OLED supplier of Art Lebedev decreases pricing of the screens for the design studio, a representative of Art Lebedev said in a brief interview with Anna Filatova, editor-in-chief of X-bit labs. Art Lebedev also demonstrated a working sample of Optimus Maximus keyboard at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

At present Optimus Maximus keyboard with 113 keys featuring OLED screens costs $1564 dollars, a price-point that is absolutely unsuitable for mainstream consumers. With OLED screens prices down, Art Lebedev will be able to make the keyboard much more affordable, though, it can hardly be expected that the price will be comparable to today’s keyboards. The complex hardware inside the keyboard will still keep the pricing of the device high: even Optimus with one “active” key is set to be sold for $460.

Check out Art Lebedev Optimus Maximus at Consumer Electronics Show 2008 Gallery

Nevertheless, even at around $500 keyboards from Art Lebedev will pose a lot of interest for enthusiasts, who may cease to buy keyboards from companies like Logitech or Microsoft thanks to huge publicity of Art Lebedev and Optimus.

Optimus Maximus is a full-sized 113-keys keyboard with colour OLED screens located inside each key. The screens are 10.1mm² large and have 48x48 pixels resolution, according to its developers. Specially designed software will be able to change images on the colour screens depending on the program running.