The Space Bar, Desk Organizer with Built-In USB Ports, Hits quirky’s Online Store

New York, NY, January 19, 2010 — Today marks the official release of The Space Bar – community developed office accessory to help you maximize the use of your desk space. The Space Bar is designed to house your desktop clutter while also providing additional USB ports for your gadgets. The Space Bar is simple and elegantly designed and provides you with More Space, More Ports, and Less Clutter.

Use The Space Bar shelf to store any desk items you like – keys, digital camera, iPod, Split Stick, Cable Caps, sticky notes and more. At the end of the day, simply slide your keyboard into the designated space below the shelf and return in the morning to a neat and organized office space. This device can stow a keyboard up to 18″ long by 1.5″ high.

In addition to the storage and tidy-ness benefits, The Space Bar also has 6 USB ports conveniently located in the front of the unit and 1 USB cable in the back to connect it to your computer. Now there’s need to conserve your ports – you can have your camera, iPod, Split Stick, and more hooked in all at once! The Space Bar is constructed of aluminum with durable hard plastic accents.

The Space Bar is the twenty third product designed and developed by the quirky community since quirky’s launch on June 2nd. quirky gives everyone the chance to get product ideas out of their heads and onto shelves. Each week quirky’s community collaborates to select and produce one new product idea. This week ends the development of The Space Bar and it is now available for sale in sets of three at quirky’s online store for $42.00.

You might remember other successful quirky products including the Split Stick, a double-sided USB drive, the DigiDude, a portable camera tripod and keychain, the Scratch-n-Scroll, a mousepad with a writing surface and the PowerCurl , a cord wrap for Apple’s MagSafe power adapter.

quirky engages participants to collaborate in every aspect of product creation – from ideation, design, naming, manufacturing, marketing, right on through to sales. Anyone can participate on quirky.com either by submitting their own product idea for $99, or by voting, rating, and influencing other people’s product ideas. Cooler still, 30¢ of every dollar generated from the sale of a quirky product goes back to these influencers.

Every week users post ideas on quirky to be rated by the quirky community. The community surveys the submissions during the 7-day evaluation period and selects one product to move forward to product development. quirky’s community then begins weighing in on everything from naming to logo selection to packaging through to prototype.

The final product becomes available for pre-sale at the quirky online store (quirky.com/products). Once the product hits its pre-sale threshold, credit cards are charged, and the product goes into production and delivery. At this point, 30¢ of every dollar made from the sale of these products goes back to the community. “Community” in this case covers both the ideator as well as all people who voted, commented, and rated the project idea along the way.