The history of commercial computer keyboards. The first of these keyboards were sold in the 1970s, and they were on the heavier side, as they were assembled from scratch and mechanical, as well as exposed. Some keyboards were built into personal computers at the time too, like these small PCs by Altair and Imsai. Later in the 1970s, Apple, Radio Shack, and Commodore would all start producing their own manufactured keyboards.
Later in 1981, IBM would release the Model M keyboard, which had a lot of success due to its ease of use in comparison to older keyboards. During this time beige and gray were colors, but black, the most common keyboard color was finally introduced. In the 1990s the membrane key switches were introduced, which made for a quieter and lighter keyboard, but also one with lower quality. Since then a plethora of keyboards have been introduced. The most well known modern keyboard trend is the led keyboard, which had a patent by Steve W. Stracener that can be traced back to 1983. Follow me for more weird keyboards.