I love keyboards, and at the top of the market, there’s nothing like a Norbauer Seneca. In case you’re unfamiliar, the Seneca is a mechanical keyboard made by Norbauer and Co. with an incredibly high build quality and attention to detail, and an even higher price.

Don’t get me wrong. From all I’ve read, the Norbauer Seneca seems great. Yet, it was never meant to be a mass-market product. Its purpose is as a luxury good, bought by only the most dedicated mechanical keyboard fanatics — and its price, starting at $3600, reflects that.

I also love app awards. Whether it’s mainstream ones, like those of Apple or MacStories, or ones like the Expo App Awards, which are meant to display apps made using a specific platform (in this case Expo), app awards showcase the best apps of the year, both giving the creator satisfaction, and granting the app more fame. And while the inaugural winners of the Expo App Awards should certainly get a prize, the Norbauer Seneca doesn’t feel right to me.

The people buying a Norbauer Seneca are a self-selected group, who are willing to pay thousands of dollars for the perfect typing experience. Most other people, even if they type all day, wouldn’t want such a product. My dad is a writer and types thousands of words a day — yet he’s perfectly happy with the Magic Keyboard that came with his iMac, and can’t stand the noise of a mechanical keyboard like the Norbauer Seneca. Developers are heavy users of the keyboard, too, but that doesn’t inherently mean that they’re mechanical keyboard fans.

So to give a luxury keyboard to people who won’t really appreciate it feels like a waste. For a select few, a Seneca would be the perfect gift. But for the creators of the five best apps of 2025? Maybe.

The winners will be revealed on November 20th, pushed back from November 13th. Stay tuned for more on this — once the winners are announced, I’m going to reach out to hear their thoughts on receiving a Seneca (maybe they’d like to regift it to a certain twelve-year-old writer?).