- Microsoft has discontinued most of its ergonomic keyboards, the first of which debuted nearly 30 years ago.
- The news caused grief for the devotees.
- “It’s really pleasant to use,” said Jeff Atwood, a co-founder of the programming question-and-answer site Stack Overflow, referring to the original Microsoft Natural Keyboard from 1994.
Brittany Matter’s home desk features the mouse, keyboard and number pad found in the discontinued Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop set. He puts the keyboard in a backpack when he travels, because he wants to be comfortable when he works.
Brittany Matters
When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a memo in January that there would be “changes to our hardware portfolio,” the news had troubling significance for people like Brittany Matter.
A freelance writer in Olympia, Washington, Matter is a devotee of Microsoft’s ergonomic keyboard, the first variation of which the company began selling nearly 30 years ago. He even brought his keyboard and mouse with him when he traveled to Hawaii for a few days earlier this month.
Nadella’s announcement spells the end for his beloved accessory.
“Have you ever experienced fainting symptoms?” Matter said in an interview. “It’s the pain that creeps up the back of your neck. It prevents you from moving your neck left and right, and then completely reduces your mobility. That’s the pain I get when my mouse and keyboard aren’t ergonomic .”
Keyboards have never been big business for Microsoft, which became a household name thanks to its ubiquitous PC software and then made a massive entrance into gaming with the Xbox. Today, most of Microsoft’s business comes from the use of its cloud services by businesses, schools and government agencies.
But since entering the keyboard business in 1994 — four years earlier than current market leader Logitech — Microsoft has attracted a lot of fans with its ergonomic offerings. While the company will continue to make keyboards, it’s phasing out more popular ergonomic products as part of a broader effort to prioritize growing categories.
Beige in color, the Microsoft Natural Keyboard divides the letter keys into two clusters so that the typist’s left hand leans slightly toward the right, and vice versa. It featured the Windows keys on either side of the space bar.
“It’s really nice to use,” says Jeff Atwood, a co-founder of the programming question-and-answer site Stack Overflow. “It looked cool. You could see they were trying to do something. It wasn’t just aesthetics. It had a purpose.”
Matter discovered ergonomic keyboards about a decade ago, when he worked for Zulily. The e-commerce company gave him an ergonomic keyboard and mouse, which reduced his wrist pain.
After that, he went the Apple route and used the built-in keyboard on his laptop. Then, four years ago, he found himself in a freelance role at Marvel, which gave him no equipment.
“I need something for $100 or less,” Matter said.
Wirecutter, the New York Times product review website, recommended a keyboard from Microsoft. He went to Best Buy and bought the Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop, which contains a mouse, keyboard and a separate number pad that he can place next to the keyboard.
Within a year, two of the keycaps appeared.
“I kept putting them on and kind of dealing with it,” he said. “But then I remembered, I have this warranty.”
Matter was returned to Best Buy, which gave him a replacement. The new set has been around since then. And now when he travels, Matter keeps the keyboard in his Chrome Industries backpack.
“It’s pretty tall, and so it fits in there,” he said.
When the Microsoft Natural Keyboard hit the market, it caught the attention of Matt Steinhoff, who was working as a system administrator at a newspaper in Florida. People in the news business are concerned that some keyboards can leave them with repetitive stress injuries. The Microsoft keyboard looked strange to Steinhoff, but he bought one anyway after finding a coupon for it.
“It’s a learning curve,” Steinhoff said. “I got a lot of weird looks. But once I got used to it, it just felt comfortable. Logically, it made perfect sense that the wrists were in a better position.”
Steinhoff became an evangelist for the product. He switched newspapers in 1998 and bought a newer model, the Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite. His mother, a retired librarian in West Palm Beach, Florida, got one, too.
Lila Steinhoff, a retired bookkeeper, still uses the Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite, released in 1998.
Matt Steinhoff
However, the Natural Keyboard Elite is not a product that is loved by everyone.
The arrow keys are arranged in a diamond shape. Microsoft designed them that way because some people complained that the keyboard predecessor took up too much desk space, said Hugh McLoone, who is a senior user experience researcher at the company.
However, the updated layout made it “impossible to play games or get around a spreadsheet,” Steinhoff said. “They just weren’t in the right position.”
To critics of the diamond arrow cluster, McLoone said these words: “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
In 2005, Steinhoff started a new job. He got Microsoft’s Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, which returned the arrow keys to a more traditional inverted T orientation.
McLoone worked on the design of the 4000 model for seven years.
The new keyboard has a higher bump in the middle, and certain keys are set inward and upward so users don’t have to reach their fingers. It’s just not made to be comfortable. McLoone also cares about performance and appeal.
A study showed that 22 out of 23 people preferred the geometry of the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 over the older Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro. It has become the best-selling aftermarket wired keyboard in the US, according to Circana data.
Software developer Marco Arment it is recommended. Paul Graham, a co-founder of Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator, was photographed use it.
“I’m so happy!” Atwood wrote to him Coding Horror blog after buying one.
Steinhoff used his for 11 years. A replacement lasted another six years. In 2022, he bought a Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard for his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and another when he was working in a client’s office.
From top to bottom, Matt Steinhoff’s home collection includes the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard he uses every day, a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000 keyboard someone gave him and his old Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 , which he keeps as a backup.
Matt Steinhoff
None of the models were ideal for Steinhoff, but he appreciated their affordability. And relying on them all these years can be a kind of preventive measure. His brother recently had surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome.
“I definitely put it off by having an ergonomic keyboard,” he says.
As for his mother’s keyboard, Steinhoff’s family knows not to touch it even though they update her computer every 10 years or so.
“I really, really, really like my keyboard,” he wrote in an email to his son. “No, you can’t have it.”
There are many software developers at Microsoft who are like them, Edie Adams, a director of ergonomics at the company, said in a 2022 interview.
“I think because people are used to it,” she said.
Atwood said she understands why Microsoft chose to withdraw from the market after so many years. For one, keyboards exploded in popularity, and people posted videos on social media of themselves assembling them. In the 1990s, the average person who bought a PC just used the keyboard that came in the box.
On Atwood’s desk in her home in Berkeley, California, sits an iridescent keyboard that someone made for her.
“The industry is mature, and they have other things they want to focus on,” said Atwood, who announced in 2013 that he had collaborated with WASD Keyboards on a stripped-down mechanical keyboard called the Code. “They really deserve a lot of credit for hardware stuff. It was unappreciated, in my opinion. They really moved things forward.”
A Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC in an email that the company is “focusing on its Windows PC accessories portfolio under the Surface brand.”
McLoone owns a Microsoft Wireless Comfort Desktop 5050, whose keyboard uses the curvy design he pioneered before leaving Microsoft in 2009. The keys are set up to encourage good posture, with more large keys in the middle. Microsoft’s contemporary Sculpt Comfort Desktop kit includes a keyboard that uses a similar style.
The keyboard is no longer in stock on Microsoft’s website, although it remains available on Amazon. A person in Japan bought 10 on Amazon after hearing the news that Microsoft would stop making the product.
What does McLoone suggest?
“I don’t know. Buy the next best thing. Stock them,” said McLoone, who now works as a senior manager of user experience research at T-Mobile.
Other versions of older Microsoft keyboards are also out of stock but can still be found elsewhere online for now.
Microsoft still sells the Surface Ergonomic Keyboard, which came out in 2016. While it’s out of stock on the company’s website, it “remains part of our Surface-branded PC Accessories lineup,” a company spokesperson said. The model costs $129.99 on Amazon, twice the price of the discontinued Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard.
Other companies, including Logitech, still make ergonomic keyboards. But that is small consolation to people like Matter.
“I am so devastated,” Matter wrote in an email. “I’ll have to buy another set as a backup before they stop selling them.”
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