A serious question about SP

[dante]

So regarding this thread on Rededit I have a couple questions.

So if I understand correctly the reason why the hobbyist sets are out of stock is because you put more of a priority on corporate users.  If these companies are buying tons of keycaps what keyboards are they going into?  Most of corporate America is rubberdome so I'm very curious if there is a segment of keyboards not known about.

Also, if the corporate clients are what keeps the lights on do you think they find it weird/unprofessional to find "pimp my keyboard" on the site?

I'm just curious. 

[zslane]

Their commercial/industrial business has nothing to do with PMK, and I doubt their commercial/industrial clients even know that website exists, nor would they bother to visit it. Those clients deal directly with SP and bypass the web all together.

At this point, SP's revenue is about evenly split between commercial clients and what they call "retail" product (what we call custom mech community group buys). The backlog has nothing to do with giving any particular part of their business priority over another (usually), but rather with the time scale for production given the number of machines and staff they have to actually make the keycaps.

Seeing as how their retail schedule is currently backlogged out to August, with no reduction in upcoming keysets in sight, I'd say that SP has a healthy future ahead of it. Of course, a lot could change when the next recession hits and things like custom keycap sets become unnecessary luxuries for many of the more recent enthusiasts.

[Saiph]

I think a lot of their commercial business is for machinery where you don't want the switches and keycaps to wear out. 

[Badwrench]

I think a lot of their commercial business is for machinery where you don't want to switches and keycaps to wear out.

Exactly this.  See the Crap Bags as proof. 

[Data]

I think a lot of their commercial business is for machinery where you don't want the switches and keycaps to wear out.

They make cap sets for a lot of point-of-sale systems and other business products.  Are you familiar with the Bloomberg terminals?



It's a custom system for the financial sector, has its own proprietary keyboard.  I don't know that SP makes the key caps for these but it's a good example of the sort of custom business systems that would be customers for SP's product.  There are similar products in the manufacturing and energy sectors (among others).

Like if NASA launch control needs a custom keyboard for a new system, whatever manufacturer makes that keyboard would work with a company like SP to source the caps.  They wouldn't just use an off-the-shelf Kensington rubber dome. 

[zslane]

SP also makes specialized keyboard cases and key panels.

[Data]

SP also makes specialized keyboard cases and key panels.

Do they handle the electronics too?

[zslane]

I don't believe so, no.