CM NovaTouch TKL Price Speculation

[dano]

It's a simple idea, really, cooler master has poor quality products, an ugly cm storm logo, and quality control issues. so when I heard about the novatouch tkl, I thought it was a great idea, albeit from a crappy company. Then I saw the price. CM can't be serious.

You hear about the power supplies leading to fried motherboards. Their computer cases are nothing compared to something like fractal design (which has minimal elegance). Their case fans can't keep things cool without making a ton of noise. coolermaster resorts to flashy product names meant to 'excite' (more like 'trick' people into buying). And, I could hazard to guess that if I called their quality department on the phone they wouldn't take criticism without resorting to making unprofessional statements, and perhaps even ad hominem attacks.

The Type Heaven uses ABS and has topre switches - as we all know, - but even the price of that is $150 (or less if you can get one on sale), when that is a 100% keyboard. And, if you want to spend at least another $125-$150, you could get topre keycaps.

$150 seems like a more reasonable price for the novatouch. Or else the community of keyboard enthusiasts will print our own topre/mx hybrid sliders and sell/trade them.

[002]

I'm going to ignore the fact that your first post is a full frontal assault on Cooler Master and say that I agree with you on some aspects. Cooler Master surely have a bigger budget for advertising and brand promotion than brands such as Leopold and Filco...a cost that has to be absorbed in the price of their keyboards. Keep in mind though that it can't have been cheap to get Topre to re-tool for a fully cherry compatible stem and stabilisers.

If you really want to do something about it though, convince everyone to *not* buy one and it would force CM's hand and make them lower the price. I think you might have a hard time doing that though because this is a unique product and will probably sell well even if it were judged on the sole fact that it has compatibility with cherry caps.

[tlt]

Brands like CM sell all kinds of stuff made by many different OEMs so the brand seldom says that much about the quality of the product.

[the1onewolf]

I would agree with this sentiment.
Might as well just get a Real force which comes with a great set of quality caps for that 200 bucks.

Although I do have to say, if we're going to talk about computer cases - fractal design cases are all steel like CM case's.
They're not premium aluminum cases and neither of them is priced like one either. So I don't think there's alot you can hold against CM in this regard ... I mean aside from how every CM case looks like some sort of robot.

[scottc]

Where did you get the figure of $200? I didn't realise that prices were out yet.

If the price is that high, then CM really had us going. I think that we were all under the impression that the Novatouch would be to the Realforce as the QFR is to Filcos: basically the same quality, but at a lower price point. I remember reading CM Bram here on DT that the pricing would be "competitive", and I was definitely eagerly waiting for release details the whole time.

If $200 really is the price (which will no doubt be €200 in Europe), then I don't really see the point. I'm just going to buy a HHKB for that price...

[matt3o]

I'm not allowed to speak but gosh €200 is definitely not the case!

[Muirium]

that all lowercase title was getting on my nerves

Welcome to DT, Dano. It's a great place to write a blog! Looking forward to your second post about what you think about the price of the HHKB. Should be about 60% of a Type Heaven, amirite?

The NovaTouch has its own thread where we've been speculating about price and features for months. Spoiler: like you, we don't know the number either. But I guess you wanted that editorial ambiance that only a personal blog can provide.

[Halvar]

Given the original thread title, he obviously came from reddit, where you always open your own thread for everything.

The novatouch shortly appeared on the CM USA shop page for that price, but it turned out that they had activated the page in error, so the price could or could not be real.

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=616 ... msg1434316

[davkol]

The $200 price was accidentally released in their US e-store and started a shitstorm over at GH. I think it was Carter who said it was a mistake and the keyboard was supposed to be available on 22. September.

Some people are already getting their novatouches in Asia though, and with good impressions. The price is around $230 there AFAIK.

Considering £200 for a realforce is a rape (The Keyboard Company, I'm looking at you), almost any (lower) price should be good. €180 might work (at least in case of enthusiasts) and €150 would be a steal (Filco MJ2 killer, if you ask me).

[Muirium]

The $200 figure has been floated around for a while now. Here's CM Europe's Bram's response about it way back in January:

According to this article the Novatouch TKL will cost just under $200, any comments on this, CM Bram?

http://techreport.com/news/25895/this-c ... s-you-type

I cannot comment at this stage for a final MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) for this keyboard. Besides any price speculations keep in mind US Dollar price is not simple 1=1 for Euro price.

Quote from that link: The NovaTouch TKL will be available for less than $200 in the early part of the second quarter. To comment on this, sure less then 200 can be done, but if it's 199 or 179, 159, 129 or 19 that I cannot say at this stage. I hope you understand

You can tell it was long ago, with a projected launch date like that! The NovaTouch has been in development a long time, all right.

Ripster made a photo review which includes confirmation that the PCB is Topre made:



So I wouldn't be surprised if CM doesn't have that much flexibility in pricing on this one anyway. You're getting what you pay for.

[scottc]

I'm not allowed to speak but gosh €200 is definitely not the case!

Well that's a relief for sure.

[Hypersphere]

My recollection is that Novatouch threads over at GH indicate a price of around 200 USD, which at least some people there seem to think is reasonable in order to recoup development costs. If the release date is in the latter part of September, we should know relatively soon.

[Max]

They should sell a version of this with out keycaps, I'd imagine that would cut the cost a bit. Also considering a lot of people who would be looking to buy this, would be planning on switching out the keycaps. I bet they will charge a premium though.

[Hypersphere]

They should sell a version of this with out keycaps, I'd imagine that would cut the cost a bit. Also considering a lot of people who would be looking to buy this, would be planning on switching out the keycaps. I bet they will charge a premium though.

It would be interesting to see how many people would prefer a version without keycaps. This elicited a memory from school days about a diner where I would sometimes have lunch. I remember the sign behind the counter with the prices for a bowl of chili. They had chili with beans and chili without beans. The version without beans cost more.

[dano]

Thanks for the replies. This has been way more informative to me than the discussion at gh. It seems like gh has lots of people that get mad and call you names as soon as you have an opinion that is different than theirs. dt is magnitudes better. <3

note: typing on mobile, auto-capitalize disabled.

[Max]

I would definitely buy their keyboard without keycaps (or at least be seriously interested in buying it), if the price was cheaper than any other topre TKL by about $50 USD, Probably won't happen though. I reckon CM will charge a lot for this TKL because "it's compatible with Cherry Mx keycaps,".

[002]

It would be interesting to see how many people would prefer a version without keycaps. This elicited a memory from school days about a diner where I would sometimes have lunch. I remember the sign behind the counter with the prices for a bowl of chili. They had chili with beans and chili without beans. The version without beans cost more.

You don't even need to look past the keyboard world for an analogy. Tenkeyless keyboards are often more expensive than their equivalent full-sized models. It's easy for most of us to understand but I do see newbies scratching their head about it. You pay more for less of a footprint, or in your chilli example; more for less flatulence

[Daniel Beardsmore]

A TKL costing more makes no sense, and I don't recall seeing that. If anything, they're the ones that will sell more, so it's not like the economies of scale are stacked against you.

What you don't see is a TKL costing proportionately less — i.e. they're not 80% of the full price. At keyboardco, full size keyboards cost only 5% more than TKL keyboards.

[Hypersphere]

A TKL costing more makes no sense, and I don't recall seeing that. If anything, they're the ones that will sell more, so it's not like the economies of scale are stacked against you.

What you don't see is a TKL costing proportionately less — i.e. they're not 80% of the full price. At keyboardco, full size keyboards cost only 5% more than TKL keyboards.

And if you want a TKL Model M (IBM SSK), it will cost much more than a full-size model.

And a 60% Topre-switch keyboard (HHKB Pro 2) costs much more than a TKL Topre-switch, such as the RF 87u.

Supply/demand; what the market will bear for something that people want.

[_PixelNinja]

You wouldn't be anowt over at GH would you?

[002]

For a very long time, the Realforce TKL keyboards were a good deal more expensive than full size. Even now, some models remain so. Leopold sell all TKL Realforces for about 268 euros and all full sized for 246.
Filcos arent so bad with most being about the same at 165000krw, but the TKL form get more limited editions and they are more expensive than full.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

And if you want a TKL Model M (IBM SSK), it will cost much more than a full-size model.

I'm thinking of new products.

keyboardco charges the same price for Realforce of both sizes. EK's Realforce prices need a spreadsheet to get your head around, due to all the random sale prices and variance between weightings and silent and what not.

Charging more for TKL seems absurd — do TKL models really sell that much less than full-size? I mean, you rarely see anyone making aluminium cases for full-size keyboards, but maybe there really are enough "normal" people buying these product ranges (inasmuch as any normal person would spend nearly £200 on a keyboard) that full-size really does outweigh TKL enough to bring the economies of scale in favour of full-size.