deskthority

Please vote for your winner of the award for the Best keyboard company or brand 2013.

By voting in this category you can win a Ducky, SkiData or Realforce from 002.

This is the final round. See the first round and second round for reference.

The official nominees are:

Cooler Master
Cooler Master is a computer hardware manufacturer from Taiwan. Founded in 1992, the company is a popular aftermarket brand for computer chassis, PSU, coolers, cooling pads, and accessories such as mechanical keyboards.


The Cooler Master QuickFire Rapid.

Ducky Nordic
Ducky Nordic is the Nordic distributor and partner of Ducky, and a respected member of deskthority. Keyboards are for larger part in ISO layout, with some models that are not available in other regions by default.


Alternative high design Ducky Nordic logo artwork.

Filco
Diatec's Filco is one of the most famous and long-standing "modern" quality keyboard brands. The Filco Majestouch line of keyboards consists of a series of high quality, well-priced keyboards.


A Filco Majestouch Tenkeyless keyboard with Cherry MX switches. The term "tenkeyless" was introduced by Filco.

IBM
IBM manufactured typewriters and high quality computer keyboards using beam springs or buckling springs. As the designer of what became the modern PC, IBM's influence extends to the layout of modern keyboards, and some of the interfaces that they use.


A modest collection of IBM Model M keyboards.

Topre
Topre is known among mechanical keyboard enthusiasts for its development of the Topre capacitive switch. This switch is found on keyboards like the Topre-made Realforce and the HHKB Professional.


Topre prototype on display in Topre's Sagamihara plant, where Realforce keyboards are made.

I voted coolermaster in second round, amongst others, since they sell solid build quality cheaper than others...Filco... and them however are just ordinary companies doing regular business whereas Ducky nordic seems to be in close touch and listening to customers. Got to support that, hence they got my vote IBM as a keyboard copany in 2013 feels odd, imo.

Similar logic to how I chose, too. Filco and Topre had a good year for new keyboards, but the winner is quite apparent.

Hard to decide. Ducky Nordic does in fact do good social marketing, but my vote goes to Topre because, the nerd that I am, I tend to honor technical inventiveness more than innovative business practices.

If it's related to 2013, maybe Filco or CM.

If only Filco started to produce keyboards with DIP switches to allow for layout changes (Dvorak!) and Ctrl <-> Caps etc.
Nevertheless, their boards are great.
And there are bpiphany's custom controllers of course.

Kurk wrote:If only Filco started to produce keyboards with DIP switches to allow for layout changes (Dvorak!) and Ctrl <-> Caps etc.

*cough*minila*cough*

matt3o wrote:*cough*minila*cough*

*sneeze*dvorak*sneeze*

I vote CM because they make keyboard case tops available for modding, which has been a blast.

The vote closes on Monday 9 December at 20:00 UTC. Vote now!

The two nominees with currently the most votes are (in alphabetical order):