Pricing niche products • Hacker News Board

Re: Pricing niche products

#51

Post by random3 » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 2:51 PM UTC

Tepix wrote: post #31

I've followed the Keyboard.io Model 01 crowdfunding campaign (they have the best writeups!) with a lot of interest. I'd probably buy two of their keyboards if they'd offer a German keyboard layout. They are $329 each. For that price, I expect a perfect product. A keyboard that looks equally tempting (but involves a lot of soldering and other work) is the Dactyl keyboard ( https://github.com/adereth/dactyl-keyboard ).

Keyboard.io is one of the nicest pre-built ones.

You can fully customize the layout of the Keyboard.io and get blank keycaps https://community.keyboard.io/t/whats-the-latest-info-on-key...

You can get a barely used one for ~250 just watch their forums.

I've got one 1-2 months ago after playing with a Kinesis. The keyboard is really nice. The firmware and software ecosystem around it is powerful but still lacks usability (you write plugins in C although they have a really nice graphical interface to configure it). https://github.com/keyboardio/Kaleidoscope

Re: Pricing niche products

#52

Post by leksak » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 2:54 PM UTC

Not related to the content but kudos on the site styling. Haven't opened it on anything that is not a mobile device (yet) but it was very pleasant to read.

Re: Pricing niche products

#53

Post by durkie » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 2:54 PM UTC

in_hindsight wrote: post #48

Wow, so the author basically suggested to use the auction to sell the keyboard at $1668 instead of $500 because it’s not market clearing price? That’s borderline evil

Can't they just not buy it? Lots of cheaper alternatives out there. Seems no different than a fancy watch or pen.

Re: Pricing niche products

#54

Post by pilsetnieks » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 2:55 PM UTC

kragen wrote: post #37

lewisflude wrote: post #12

I'm in the $600+ club too (Kepler that has a full brass bottom weight 6+kg, Kepler 65 with it's forged carbon top etc.) It's a really strange hobby. A bunch of people who really value and love keyboards, the thing that sits between a human and a computer, a tool that many (developers, writers, gamers) use every day for hours on end. Similar to how someone might invest in a nice knife if they love cooking, luxury-pric…

> forged carbon top You can't forge carbon. It's not malleable. It shatters if you try to forge it. Are you making a joke about people being gullible, or are there some exotic solid-state physics involved here that I don't know about? Oh, apparently you mean molded plastic with a chopped carbon-fiber filler? Heh.

It's not forged in a forge, it's just called that. It's just molded carbon fiber in resin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forged_composite

Re: Pricing niche products

#55

Post by throwpupper » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 2:58 PM UTC

C1sc0cat wrote: post #29

Altheasy wrote: post #7

There will be always stupid person who would waste 1668$ on this bullshit.

And there will be the unlucky (stupid) person that ends up with RSI at 35

It's funny that most of these super hyped up mechanical keyboards still use traditional staggered non-split layout that will still contribute to developing RSI sooner or later.

I feel bad for the shoulders and hands of all those geeks using their tiny $600 cramped keyboards.

Any keyboard that does not separate into two independent halves (like ErgoDox or Matias ErgoPro) is horrible for posture and ergonomics.

Re: Pricing niche products

#56

Post by anonuser123456 » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 2:58 PM UTC

overthemoon wrote: post #9

What, really, are the benefits? I used a friend's mechanical keyboard and it felt nice. Is that it? Is it necessary to spend 100s to get a good one? The whole thing seems insane to me. No judgement, I spend money on other stuff, it just doesn't make sense to me personally. I typed this on a mac keyboard people seem to hate, so maybe it's Stockholm syndrome.

It's an acquired taste. Your brain can learn to like stuff it's conditioned to. I think a lot of people are enticed by the marketing speak of 'mechanical is better'. They buy one, use it and condition their brain to enjoy it. Just like wine & coffee; if you don't know any better you won't care.

This is coming from someone that drinks fancy coffee and owns 2 Kinesis advantage keyboards at 300 bucks each.

Re: Pricing niche products

#57

Post by EDevil » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 2:59 PM UTC

phaus wrote: post #2

I have a $600+ keyboard so I'm a part of this hobby. However, only a part of this can be explained by the expense of manufacturing at a small scale. The hobby fully embraces the drawbacks of the small scale and intentionally does nothing to try to improve it because the exclusivity drives prices up to an insane point. A typical group buy for a popular case sells out in minutes or days time after time. Clearly some of…

Are those box jade switches some kind of special version? I can't find them here:

https://www.pcgamingrace.com/products/kailh-mx-switches

Re: Pricing niche products

#58

Post by MadWombat » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 2:59 PM UTC

phaus wrote: post #2

I have a $600+ keyboard so I'm a part of this hobby. However, only a part of this can be explained by the expense of manufacturing at a small scale. The hobby fully embraces the drawbacks of the small scale and intentionally does nothing to try to improve it because the exclusivity drives prices up to an insane point. A typical group buy for a popular case sells out in minutes or days time after time. Clearly some of…

God, and here I was, thinking my Azio Mk Retro was extravagant :)

Re: Pricing niche products

#59

Post by pilsetnieks » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 2:59 PM UTC

katet wrote: post #43

iikoolpp wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whereas I own a £1 keyboard and I prefer it vastly more than any mechanical KB I had before.

Just in case this strikes anyone as dismissive, I too sincerely miss the old, beige keyboards that used to come with things like the old IBM, Tiny, MiTac, and Amiga brands I scavenged as a teenager. And those things were _robust_ - you could strip them down, soak them in detergent overnight, and have them good as new the next day without key caps falling off or the space bar sticking.

Those keyboard enthusiasts are in fact obsessing about the very same keyboards you mention, like the IBM Model M. One of those in good condition can be sold for quite a bit of money.

Re: Pricing niche products

#60

Post by Filligree » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 3:00 PM UTC

pilsetnieks wrote: post #54

kragen wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> forged carbon top You can't forge carbon. It's not malleable. It shatters if you try to forge it. Are you making a joke about people being gullible, or are there some exotic solid-state physics involved here that I don't know about? Oh, apparently you mean molded plastic with a chopped carbon-fiber filler? Heh.

It's not forged in a forge, it's just called that. It's just molded carbon fiber in resin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forged_composite

I would be concerned about that. Carbon fiber isn't much better than asbestos, and while both are fine if sealed in a wall, we're talking about a keyboard taking daily wear and tear with the fibers sealed under a thin layer of glue.

A keyboard cannot possibly need the tensile strength, so why not just use plastic?