It’s not the first time companies have ridden a wave of fame on the backs of vaporware. And while the Optimus keyboard is not officially vapor yet, all signs point to it. And very few contenders to the Vapor Awards have ever evoked such passionate reaction in technophiles worldwide. First announced nearly a year and a half ago, the Optimus, from the Russian Art Lebedev Studio, promised something unique: a 103-key, fully configurable keyboard. But not just configurable; each key was going to have a tiny OLED screen on it, thereby enabling the user to reprogram each one to his own use.
The implications were endless: changing from one language to another on the fly, creating dedicated gaming keys, photoshop applications, etc. It was beautiful, smart and highly sought after. And then, things started going wrong.
First, the company took several months before even announcing a timetable for the release of the product. Then, several months afterwards, they didn’t release the Keyboard, but a three-key version of it called The Mini-Three. More waiting, until a recent announcement that the Optimus would not initially be released with colour OLEDs, only monochrome. Under heavy criticism by now, the company retracted and stayed on the color OLED course, though they did feel it necessary to inform the community of the likely price tag: $1,200!
Of course, there very well may be a release at some point. But it certainly looks like the company is struggling to ramp up (or even begin) production. There hasn’t been a working prototype, so, I’m calling this one: it’ll never be. Sorry folks.
