by Anton Shilov
12/08/2006 | 12:35 PM
Art Lebedev Studio, the developer of the infamous customizable keyboard with screens on every key, said Friday it would concentrate on development of a keyboard with colour screens that is planned to be released in future. The company is unlikely to put efforts on releasing black and white Optimus 103 keyboard in 2007.
<%BANNER[article]%>“We will not release black and white version next year. And there will be no pre-orders on December, 12. Instead, we will concentrate on making a color Optimus-103 with OLEDs – the only color technology we seriously consider at the moment,” said Artemy Lebedev, the head of the Art Lebedev company.
Earlier Art Lebedev said it would release Optimus-103 keyboard with black and white screens in mid-2007 and that it would cost $1200 per unit for early adopters. However, the move faced loads of criticism among observers and bloggers, who claimed that it was unacceptable to get a keyboard with black and white keys at so high price tag.
In addition to the seemed-to-be cancelled black and white Optimus-103 with its exceptionally high price-tag, Art Lebedev has received critics over the form of its keys. Typically, keys on the keyboards feature a kind of a ramp to allow users to point exactly in the middle of the button and do not touch the keys nearby. Additionally, keys usually feature trapezium-like form, whereas Art Lebede’s Optmius keys featured cube-like form, according to pictures released by the company.
Art Lebedev studio has been developing a full-sized 113-keys Optimus keyboard with colour OLED keys. However, as the time went by, the full-sized keyboard got rid of certain keys with embedded small display that could be reprogrammed and was renamed to Optimus-103. Then the developers announced that keys like “Space”, “Shift” and so on will lack the screen. Afterwards, it was said that the Optimus-103 would lack colour and would cost $1200 for those, who order on the 12th of December. The plan to release such a keyboard seems to have been cancelled, however.
“As soon as we'll know all the details from our suppliers, we'll begin taking pre-orders (about February 2007),” Mr. Lebedev said.