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The Optimus Maximus Keyboard Goes For Under $500, Will Be Software-Crippled

Initial lot is sold out, as well as other news from Art Lebedev

Nov 6, 2007 17:51 GMT  ·  By
  

As things usually tend to happen with an over-hyped product, it seems that the truth about the famous Optimus Maximus keyboard is a bit different (and quite disappointing) from what the people over at Art Lebedev have been touting up until recently. Thus, according to a post on the company's official blog, the Russians have quite a bit of surprises in store for the users, but, unfortunately, not all of them are very pleasant.

But let's start with the good news, shall we? Well, it seems that the first lot of Optimuses (which, by the way, consisted of around 200 units or so) is completely sold out, and the lucky few who coughed up around 1500 US dollars for this thing will be able to fully enjoy it in either December or January, when the delivery process for this initial batch is scheduled. However, it seems that a new lot is also set to arrive in the second part of February 2008.

Furthermore, it would seem that some new, cheaper Optimus models are also in the works, as the company intends to release sub-500 and sub-1000 US dollar products as well (quite obviously, with a reduced level of functionality). Moreover, they're also prepping some new models and concepts, but these new developments will be announced at a later date.

However, as mentioned earlier, there are some bad news as well. Thus, it would seem that the software component of the Optimus Maximus is not exactly fine-tuned, which means that the initial functionality will be limited to some extent, an issue that should be solved by the monthly firmware updates the company plans on releasing. This is actually a much more serious problem than the Russian company lets us believe, since it might affect the whole marketing process for the OLED keyboard. After all, what drives even more consumers to purchase a certain product other than very positive reviews?

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