Art Lebedev to offer LED keyboards for less than $500?

Chicago (IL) – Almost half a year after concluding the pre-order phase of the $1564 Optimus Maximus keyboard, Art Lebedev announced that it will be allowing customers to pre-order sub-$500 and sub-$1000 “configurations” next week. Meanwhile, we are still waiting for the first LED keyboards to ship.

Russian design firm Art Lebedev keeps testing the patience of its customers with yet another round of rather confusing announcement made on the Optimus project blog this week. If you are among those who have pre-ordered one of the first 200 Optimus keyboards in May of this year, the good news is that, apparently, the production is moving ahead - even if you now know that the product you have ordered may not be the one you will be receiving.

For example, Art Lebedev is still revising the design of the keyboard. Last month, the company decided to change the color of the keyboard shell from black to white. And, until the first keyboards are promised to ship - according to Art Lebedev in December and January - you will have to be content with updates on the ongoing design and manufacturing process.

Additionally, Art Lebedev said that the first lot of Optimus Maximus “will be somewhat functionally limited”. But, the company promises its initial customers that it will offer “firmware updates every month or so in the beginning”, which will improve the feature set of the keyboard over time.

This week, the company said that it will be announcing new “configurations” with pre-order prices in sub-$500 and sub-$1000 price ranges next week. There are no further details announced at this time, but it is certainly a surprising move to reveal plans for lower-priced (LED ?) keyboards considering the fact that the first customers have not received their $1564 keyboards yet. U.S. customers are promised to be able to see a live demonstration of the Optimus Maximus at the Wired Store in New York “in the second part of November.”