Art Lebedev has presented a new member of the Optimus family, Optimus Pultius. This gadget like its older full-featured cousin the Optimus Maximus, uses 15 OLED embedded keys that make them fully-programmable. The Optimus Maximus did go on sale with a price tag as much as US $1900. The Pultius can be used with the Maximus for expansion of programmable keys or a side-kick to your existing keyboard. This product launches sometime end of 2008 thru early 2009.

Just ten days after the first design sketches of the new Art. Lebedev Studio keyboard appeared online, a more good looking 3D prototype is now available for your viewing pleasure. Set to abandon the OLED keys used in Optimus Maximus, Optimus Popularis is little short on details. For now the keyboard is in very early stage of development. We only know that it will be compatible with both Mac OS X and Windows systems, and is likely to feature a sub-$1000 price.

It seems that everything is shaping up nicely with the OLED based keyboard. The company blog mentiones a planned November 30th release date. The price also get pinned down at US$ 1564. That is a tad bit more than we were told at CeBIT (US$ 1490). If you want that Optimus Maximus, you better keep your eyes peeled on their website. Only 200 pieces will be constructed monthly, with a ramp to 400 units in January. A countdown to preorder will be placed on the Art. Lebedev website today or tomorrow.

I might disappoint a lot of our readers with this news. According to the Optimus project official blog, the Optimus 103 keyboard will be available for preorder on December 12 and will cost US$1200. Only 103 pre-orders will be accepted with a shipping date about May 2007. Later Optimus will start accepting more pre-orders at sub-1000 price with a shipping date around September 2007. In addition to its stunning price, the Optimus 103 will use FSTN displays with a polarizer for its keys. In other words it will use black and white displays, color ones will come later at a greater price.