Keyport Turns Things Around, Manages To Ship An Actual Product At A Relatively Reasonable Price

By Andrew Liszewski

We first brought news of the Keyport way back in October of 2007, when the $300 device that promised to replace 6 of your keys with a slick, sliding key fob was first announced. Unfortunately though things didn’t go so well for the company, or its customers. Part of the ordering process involved sending them the 6 keys you wanted converted to a Keyport, which was kind of sketchy in my opinion. So over the years I’ve been following Gear Diary’s Larry Greenberg’s saga, who ordered one shortly after they were announced. But after 2 years of waiting for the thing to arrive, he was pretty much convinced he would never see the Keyport materialize.

But as he points out in his latest post, good things apparently do come to those who wait. Keyport (the company) has been reborn. The $300 price tag has been slashed to $79, and instead of having to mail your 6 keys to get converted, you simply let the company know the types of keys you’re using during the ordering process, and they’ll mail you 6 blank slugs which you’ll need to get cut yourself. Now the whole ordering process isn’t completely a breeze, in fact determining the types of slugs you’ll need will probably require the expert eye of a locksmith, but not having to send copies of your 6 most used keys off in the mail is a big improvement. (Though car keys that feature an electronic chip for starting the ignition will still need to be sent in.)

Now they’re still not officially available just yet, Larry was part of a select group chosen to beta test the new design and ordering process, but the cheaper price tag almost makes the Keyport seem tempting again, if history doesn’t repeat itself that is.

[ Keyport ] VIA [ Gear Diary ]