X-bit labs

OLED Keyboard Optimus Mini Three Faces Delays.

Category: Other

by Anton Shilov

[ 04/17/2006 | 04:31 AM ]

Art Lebedev, a well-known design studio in Russia and also the developer of the innovative Optimus keyboards, has quietly adjusted the shipment date for its Optimus mini three keyboard, which was set to be released commercially in mid-May, 2006, but will be actually launched in mid-June, 2006.

Optimus mini three keyboard is a pad with three keys each of which incorporates 20mm x 20mm small OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) screens with 96x96 pixels resolution that can display different information, depending on the application. The main advantage the Optimus mini three has is that it can be reprogrammed to perform certain actions depending on the launched software using special configuration utility and reflect the changes in the actions to be performed on the OLED screens. 

Initially Art Lebedev studio started to take pre-orders on the Optimus mini three with the aim to ship the hardware on the 15^th of May, 2006. However, recently the company changed the availability date of “the first lot” to the 15^th of June, 2006. Moreover, shipment date for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, and Lithuania is the 5^th of July. 

The company did not immediately return email seeking for comments and the reasons for the delay are currently unclear. 

The design studio is naturally only a developer of the hardware, but not its producer, which means that it depends on the manufacturer whether the actual hardware reaches the market on time. 

Art Lebedev studio is also developing a full-sized Optimus keyboard with OLED keys. The full-sized one also features keys with embedded small display that can be reprogrammed. The design studio is looking forward to laying their “hands on a sample before year-end” even despite of the Optimus mini three delay, according to the web-site of the studio. 

Currently Art Lebedev is taking pre-orders on the Optimus mini three for $120 per unit.