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Comment by arohner | Hacker News Reader

New startup idea: manufacture ergonomic, mechanical split keyboards for less than $200.

Because a startup is a serious risk for this sort of thing, I wonder if the 'groupon' idea could be adapted to this sort of purpose. Buyers pre-order their keyboards of a certain design and price, and the order is batch manufactured and shipped after a certain number of people sign up. Considering what can be done with small batch manufacturing these days, it seems like it would be easily doable.

If it follows the GroupOn model, then 70% of the up-front money collected would be deducted as a fee by the aggregator, another 2-4% by the credit card companies, and at least 10-15% in charge-back and refund related processing costs. For $100K in pre-orders you might have a good $10K to manufacture the product.

I'm not sure how other sites like United Artists operate, but Jim Woodring got some money to make a crazy huge fountain pen. http://projectsite.unitedstatesartists.org/project/giant_ste... Maybe that model works better.

OK, United Artists is a cool idea. GroupOn sounds worthless as you describe it. The idea is simply to create enough aggregate demand to commission and design a product in small batches, even though you aren't dealing with a mass market product. Such a model would go very well with any of the open source design initiatives out there where plans/designs for physical goods are worked on and improved upon by the Internet community at large to everyone's benefit.

Actually this is a good idea for just in time manufacturing. Have mechanical engineers / electrical engineers prototype a product in cad and put it out in a catalog. Once enough purchases are placed then you do the manufacturing. Have a cut off date that all of the money is refunded if the threshold is not met. The company keeps the cash in secure interest bearing securities and keeps the interest even if the mark is not met.

This is how Time Life books & movies used to work. They'd advertise "Secret Lives of Nazis" or whatever, but only actually make it if enough people call to order.

I sent an e-mail to a couple of the people at Unicomp (http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/), who make the Customizer and Space Saver mechanical keyboards (they're modern IBM Model Ms; see here for more: http://jseliger.com/2008/05/07/product-review-unicomp-custom...)

You mean like the Kinesis Freestyle? http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/freestyle.htm

The Freestyle is an excellent keyboard, but it's got membrane keys rather than a mechanical key switches.

There are plenty of split mechanical keyboards similarly adjustable as the M15 for a couple hundred dollars. Mechanical switches aren't the same as IBM's buckling spring.

Maybe Unicomp will one day be able to afford new tooling.

The buckling springs do make a nice sound, but the 80 gram activation pressure is painful when Topre keyboards are 35/45 and Cherry Blues are 50-ish.

I was a big Model M fan for a long time, but Topre keyboards are a lot more comfortable. And they still sound pretty excellent.

(I also like Cherry Browns, because the feeling before bottoming out is more noticeable than on the Topres. But the Topres have better build quality and ... I just like them better :)

New startup idea: design an ergonomic laptop keyboard. My ThinkPad keyboard is the best laptop keyboard I've used so far, but I think it could still use an enormous amount of improvement.

Old non-startup idea: throw a keyboard in your laptop bag.

For just about every startup idea, there's an old non-startup idea. But that doesn't mean we just shouldn't try to innovate in that area.

Start-up idea: Paste you can rub on your hands to keep them warm in the winter.

Non start-up idea: Gloves.

Heh, once upon a time it was so cold my hand was growing sores. My doctor prescribed me a paste made of animal fats to rub on my hand when it's cold to keep them warm, and as well as wool gloves, too.

Well, non-split mechanical keyboards are more than that. I paid $240 for my HHKB and $250 for my Realforce 87U. Both phenomenal keyboards, though.

The uTRON is what I consider the ideal keyboard, and it does exist: http://www.plundertech.com/utron-keyboard/

Topre switches are my favorite, and I love how it puts more load on your pointer fingers instead of on your pinkies. I'm definitely going to pick one up soon, but it will require a trip to Japan.

NSFW!

Does look to be a shady site, but that's what adblock is for. It's the only place I could find high-res pictures of the keyboard.

Neither the HHKB nor Realforce are mechanical, though. Topres are capacitive.

Right, but they are a heck of a lot better than the cherrys.

Here's a SFW link to the uTRON: http://gearcrave.com/2008-12-02/the-wicked-utron-keyboard/

It's a niche product - you have to price it high to make any money.

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