Kickstart the Week: Spike: Real Keyboards and Protective Cases for the iPhone

I spend most of my Kickstarter money on Game projects (as seen in my backer profile), but I am consistently blown away by the Product Design category. Just a quick glance at the active projects, you will see the RoboChair and Ringbow, two completely different ideas sharing the elusive "staff picks" stage.

And then you will find Spike, the super affordable iPhone case with a keyboard built into it. Something about it sets it apart from the sea of iPhone accessories. It's partially the great design of a keyboard that is there when you want it to be, and not there when you don't want it to be... but it's also that it's such an anti-iPhone, iPhone accessory. The iPhone is built for touch, and this product eliminates the need for touch in many of the most-used applications.



I'm so excited for this, but I have one big unlikely curiosity. What happens if Apple reconfigures the keyboard in an update? I'm sure a drastic change is not going to happen, but they added a few keys in the recent updates, so it's possible that Apple could break Spike very easily if they wanted to. They have the digital upper hand, which can destroy a physical component at the push of a button... but I would doubt it will happen. People would revolt, but more importantly, there is no reason for it to change. It's still something to think about, but at about the same price of a regular case, it's worth taking the chance on Spike. For the extreme worry worts and early adaptors, there's even a level that allows you to upgrade to an iPhone 5 version upon release.

There are 32 days to go, and if all goes well Spike should fund well before the time is up. The project is currently at $44,575 of it's $75,000 goal, with 32 days to go.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/matrix/spike-makes-the-iphone-as-easy-to-type-on-as-it-is