Wow, I did not expect that kind of response that quickly. I'll do my best to respond to what everyone said, though I may miss a few (don't worry, I read everyone's replies though).
Let me begin by saying I am not very knowledgeable about what's required to manufacture certain features. I assume that using plate mounted switches rather than permanently attached ones should not be too difficult nor add much expense, in which case we'll definitely opt to do that. However, keep in mind that I'm speculating.
Also, I have no idea how difficult or expensive it would be to have fully programmable keys. Again, if it's feasible, I don't see why not.
We are indeed a startup, and we're currently self funded, so we're quite limited in terms of what we can do as far as having a broad portfolio goes. To start out, we'll only have one keyboard model, as having multiple requires new tooling, which costs about $35,000 to set up. So for us, creating multiple keyboards from the get go is not economically feasible.
To explain what our market is, we're looking to create an extremely high end enthusiast keyboard that still appeals to gamers. However, don't take that to mean we'll have the same marketing and development strategies as the gamer oriented Asian manufacturers. In our case, we're all about the features. We came up with the idea for the R77 Ultimate because I kept getting different keyboards and thinking "oh, I wish it had this, or that, and they definitely should have done this." So I figured it best to come up with one that would appeal more to enthusiasts, and not skimp on features. If I had to choose a very specific market that we're looking to hit, it would be keyboard enthusiasts that also game regularly.
Also, keep in mind that we only created our render using a base of the Corsair K60, we have no intention of having a Corsair K60 clone. I love the idea of a full aluminum body keyboard, as in my opinion, it feels more solid and looks much better. We are not looking to create something super flashy, nor something as boring as the Monoprice keyboard I have. We want to create something sleek and classy (think Lian Li computer chassis).
We'd like to stick to our Double Shot keys as many people would like to have high quality keycaps, but don't want to go through the hassle of purchasing and replacing their own. We realize this increases the cost of our keyboard, but as I mentioned before, we don't want to cut features due to cost unless they're prohibitive.
We like the idea of the TrackPoint as long as it's feasible, and that will depend on whether the manufacturer we choose ends up being able to do it. However, isn't there a patent on it owned by Lenovo?
Also, as far as Black switches go, I didn't list them just because in my experience, they seem to be the least liked of the "main 4" (red, black, blue, brown) Cherry switches. If people want them, we can definitely provide them. Thankfully making keyboards with different MX switches is very easy, we just have to figure out which ones people will want to buy.
We'll definitely be sticking with dedicated media keys, I really dislike FN key media keys, and I always prefer a volume roller rather than discrete switches. For now, we'll be sticking to a full sized keyboard, but if we get good response, we'll definitely look into creating different form factor keyboards once we can afford the production.
Also, FoxWolf1, thanks for the suggestion about TG3, we'll definitely check them out. We know Costar is reputable and they make good stuff, but they only take moderately large orders, and we have limited funding. We're hesitant about working with just any manufacturer on mainland China as the quality can vary greatly. That's the reason we're looking for suggestions :-)
Thanks everyone for your feedback, I'll be checking back here regular to reply to any questions or get any more feedback you guys might have. Also, feel free to email me at ryan@tactileperipherals.com if you prefer.
Ryan
Edit: Also, I forgot to mention: the testimonials were by friends of ours who liked the feature set we had :-p
