> Thanks for the messages and the interest. My point of view, is purelly > the "retro-computing" as I collect systems for display/demonstration as > near as the original state as possible. All the hardware development > effort since the days of the mid-80's is really great, but I know, that > there are many more users/owners like myself, that do not want to hack > their systems (at least all of them) to add extra keyboards, > motherboards etc. In Greece only, I have more than a dozen such users. I get some emails from people who are not QLers as such, but have several "old" computers, people who are interested in "retro computing". I am pretty sure that although demand from users like this might not be high enough by itself to make more keyboard membranes, they are users who would not buy add on Qeyboards or Superhermes'es etc. I keep an old version JM QL and Gold Card myself for testing software on original QLs and do not want to add external keyboards to it.
> I was planning on building a high quality alternative but 100% > compatible membrane, in order to replace all the old and very fragile > membranes, on several systems. I cannot evaluate the total volume yet, > nor the future demand, but I expect it to be aprox 1K ~ 5K in the next > 10 years. And I have the money and the resources to invest on that > venture starting today. My estimate is that from the 100K systems sold, > only 10K are around nowdays, most of them thrown in closets, attics etc, > having a purelly collector's value, and only 0.1K ~ 0.5K systems are > active, used by QL power users / fans like you guys. Am I totally wrong? Although the total number of QLers is probably higher than this, many are like myself users of other computers with QL emulators, or Aurora based machines or Q40/Q60 users. Many of these people have a QL as a "second" computer. When you go to QL shows these days you do not see that many original QLs, but people who attend shows tend to be people who have more up to date systems, and a well expanded QL is often not as easy to carry to shows as a tower cased system (more loose bits to carry). While I suspect that the number of people using an original cased QL as their main computer is probably not much higher than you guessed, I know full well from correspondence received that plenty of people have QLs, even if only as a second or backup QL computer. A vital question of course is what is the minimum number of keyboard membranes any manufacturer would be prepared to make and what sort of prices at these fairly low volumes. Of course, if you have to order say 500 or 1,000 membranes, you might find that some of the QL traders might wish to buy with you and share the 500 or 1,000 among all of you so that membranes can be made available in the UK, Europe and USA, the 3 main usage areas for the QL. If you are interested in trying to get more membranes made, send me a short article we could publish in QL Today, Quanta and on this list inviting those who might want membranes in the near future to get in touch with you to help you to gauge demand for them. -- Dilwyn Jones
