I know I gonna be downvoted for this, maybe I am wrong but I dare to say:

The success of this kickstarter project shows that there's no real use case for tablets except surfing/reading/consuming/procrastinating on the sofa and thus, people want their keyboard back—anything else can be done more effectively with a computer/notebook and/or a smartphone—there's just no room for a third device between notebooks and smartphones. Don't get me wrong I appreciate all the innovations in application and OS design (iOS and the lean ARM architecture could replace x86 designs) which came with tablets but I doubt that tablets with their clumsy form factor will take over the world.

I still don't get the success of these devices. It's so much more convient to type, to keep the finger movements small (with a mouse or trackpad or a small touch screen in devices like smartphones), to have the right viewing angle without holding anything warm or using ugly extra stands. Only when surfing around and reading sites I see a real benefit but then again: moving fingers to 'click' links or to go back is so much more work compared to a small notebook like the MBA and I spend the entire day with the Internet anyway, I have to force myself to do something else in the evening—I don't want to meet again the Internet, Facebook and Google when I should go out, meet friends and family. Or I just want to watch a movie and even this is totally cumbersome with a tablet (compare this use case again to a notebook like the MBA, I just put it on my lap lying in my bed and that's it: no stand, not getting warm, always the right viewing angle, I don't have to hold something).

Again: if you disagree reply instead of voting this post down—this isn't gonna be a flamewar—I just want to question, is there really a post pc era coming where tablets replace computers (I would rather guess that smartphones and not tablets will fill the gap and could get the main distribution channel for software).

I've watched their commercial about 20 times now - They hit 100% of the notes, symbolism, sex-appeal, simplicity, emotional appeal. Even the shot of them taking it out of the manilla folder on the white background is appealing to a particular audience that remembers when the Macbook air was introduced.

Forget about making keyboards; these guys have a future in advertising.

This is not that great tbh.

If you compare it to the Transformer Prime keyboard-dock solution:

* It doesn't provide a battery extension, yet has it's own battery.

* It connects to the iPad via Bluetooth, both using A2DP and as a keyboard. (So it uses the iPad's battery.)

* The iPad doesn't clip OR dock in the keyboard, it just sits in it, however secure it is. (A large enough force could knock it out or have it slip out.)

* The Apple symbol is sideways! (Serious business this one.)

It's funny to me that there are so many people on Hacker News that can't imagine why anyone could actually want/like/love the iPad. Even if it doesn't do what you want/need, it is a serious impairment to think that its success is a fluke, or temporary. If you can't understand the world from the point of view of the non-techie consumers for whom the iPad is a life-changing device because of its sheer simplicity, then the things you make will suffer as a result. Learn to empathize with the rest of the world. These are your customers.

That's funny, not a month ago, somebody on HN said “it seems the only successful Kickstarter products are all related to Apple devices”. This goes a step further in that direction.

So now you can integrate your own $800 iNetbook with lower performance and fewer capabilities than a $300 Ubuntu netbook from 2008!

A common thread of these high-grossing kickstarter threads is the production value of the demo vids.

My sense is that Kickstarter is less of a paradigm shift than it is another venue for great marketers

Funny.. I think I saw the exact keyboard, already in production / for sale on something like akihabaranews

When I first saw the photo I thought, oooh, a new MacBook Air!

Then I proceeded to laugh my socks off.

No t-shirts? :-(

$200,000 to research, develop, design and manufacture something like that is VERY VERY low.