Autumn 2024 at The Keyboard Company

Another year is nearly 3/4 done and always in September as the weather cools and the nights get longer I get a slight panic thinking of all the things I aimed to achieve and all the things I have, still to do. Be it personal goals or business goals, is much the same.

Today I write, as much to remind myself as anyone else, that actually, much has been achieved and advances made. It has been a year for consolidation, but this too is achievement. We saw a great rise in business through pandemic and it was inevitable this would drop back some time, and seems 2024 is the year for this. Still far better figures than pre-pandemic, it is never feels right to see sales slowing. But every challenge is an opportunity and we have taken time to ensure we have not dropped the ball and that our offering is stronger than it ever has been. And we are stronger and best prepared for when the UK market rises again.

The main focus of our efforts has been to ensure the strength of the relationships we have with the suppliers whose products are our life blood. There are some who feel like family. Here is a little round up of what we have and what they are good for:

Medical Keyboards have become a mainstay of our business. They came into their own during the pandemic and we were the only people in UK with enough stock to cover orders for Nightingale hospitals.

SealShield were first to market in the early noughties with Keyboards and Mice that can be washed in the dishwasher. Their full travel washable keyboards have always been a firm favourite with users as they are good to type on – having an action similar in feel to a desktop keyboard. Always innovating they have their own labs in USA and now have a range covering all sorts of solutions for the use of technology in Healthcare settings. One greatly exciting product for this is CleanslateUV which is THE solution for the problems of mobiles phones and the germs they tend to carry. Another SealShield product we are proud to distribute in UK.

Aitmon. Alongside Sealshield, during the pandemic we worked closely with this Chinese based manufacturer giving us access to unbranded/whitebox models at excellent value. Many of the branded medical keyboards you will see on the market are made by them.

Mechanical Keyboards have made great gains over the years. We were fans from early on but now you won’t find a gamer willing to use anything but mechanical. The makes and models and variations available now are massive. And we are please to have a good representation of the very best.

Filco. In at the start of the mechanical revival, Filco are unsurpassed for build quality and typing feel. We have worked with them for many years and we use them in the office. I have one still working perfectly from the first samples we were ever sent and they have an elegant minimalist look which all the others copied. Just superb.

Keychron appeared from nowhere around 2019 and since have stormed the consumer keyboard world in a way which is hard to fathom. With a product roll out rate that is unbelievable we now have hundreds of models in all shapes and sizes with all the options and more. LED backlighting. knobs, hot swap switches, more features than you can shake a stick at.

Das Keyboard Were very influential in the early days when mechanical keyboards had almost died off. Daniel, the boss at Das found that typing on a blank keyboard helped his speed and accuracy. So he designed a blank keyed, mechanical switch keyboard and called it the Ultimate and started a brand called Das Keyboard. Another superb keyboard to type on, rock solid reliability and now a range of keyboards and headsets to keep the most geeky amongst us more than happy. We only recently added Das Keyboard to our range and it is something I am personally very pleased about.

Ergonomic Keyboards And Mice feel like less of an important area these days. As people mature as users and as the keyboards and mice on the market improve in design and quality there is less need. After a lot of huffing and puffing it seems that the most important thing to protect against RSI and WRLD is good education in posture and time taken to look after ones self. That said there are some very useful devices too, just more readily available. With education and working practice in our minds we are pleased to now work with R-Go Tools who have keyboards and mice with intelligent ‘break’ software embedded to remind the user of good practice and to take breaks regularly.

And, an old friend and the most effective ergonomic mouse we ever found. Orthomouse

And likewise, the guys at Matias. Since the early noughties we have sold their mechanical keyboards made with the mac user in mind. They were the first to do this, and only for some long time. Now they have a full range of low profile scissor switch keyboards in the mac style and we are eagerly awaiting launch later this year of their ‘Sculpted’ ergonomic model which looks beautiful and will sell well to anyone mourning the loss of the Microsoft ergo models.

I have never been one to tell someone what keyboards and mice they should or shouldn’t use. Which are best and which are not. We always had the attitude that we are akin to shoe salesmen. People come in all shapes and size and they have different uses they want to do, and so our job is to pick out solid reliable offering and then allow the customer to decide what is for them. We can advise, but we can’t decide.