- From PC World:
Motorola didn't make a big deal of it, but the Droid X's lack of physical keyboard could be its biggest distinction from the original Droid smartphone. It's obvious why Motorola would drop the sliding keyboard from the Droid X: The phone's 4.3-inch screen adds enough bulk already, and tacking on a keyboard would've turned the Droid X into an unwieldy tank. Still, the move signals a shift away from physical keyboards in smartphones, one that's been a long time coming. Arguably, Apple started this trend with the iPhone in 2007. Not everyone was sold on the touch screen keyboard PCWorld listed the lack of keys as one of the iPhone's "gotchas," and research firm User Centric tried to empirically measure the virtual keyboard's lack of usefulness. My PCWorld colleague Tim Moynihan prayed that touch screen keyboards would not be the future of smartphones. Unfortunately for Tim, they are. Rare is the high-end smartphone that attempts the physical keyboard -Blackberry phones excluded, but we'll get to that in a moment --and the ones that tried have failed. The Palm Pre, hyped in part because of its vertically-sliding keyboard, lost points in PC World's review because the hardware felt flimsy. The original Droid also got pre-release props for including a slide-out keyboard, only to lose favor because its flat keys were difficult to use. As for Blackberry phones, indeed the physical keyboard is still a strong lure, but wait a minute: According to Nielsen, Research in Motion's keyboard-free Blackberry Storm was the seventh-most popular phone series in the United States last year, and the second-most popular Blackberry series. Not everyone associates Blackberry with the Curve's screen on top, keyboard below aesthetic. Looking ahead, more smartphone makers will opt for a touch screen that runs the length of the phone, without the bulk of a sliding keyboard behind it. Look at Windows Phone 7, for example. Although Microsoft will allow for phones with physical keyboards, it's telling that the prototypes Microsoft demonstrated to the press in February used virtual keys instead. It's just better to have a full touch screen with no bulky, sliding parts. I won't go so far to say that in some murky, distant future, you won't find a single smartphone that has no physical keyboard. After all, the flip phone fell out of favor long ago, and you can still find those with any wireless carrier. But in terms of popular use, the physical keyboard is dying, and Droid X is helping arrange the funeral.06-24-10 01:10 PMLike 0 - While I agree, there are always going to be people who "need" a physical keyboard. I thought I was one, until I got the Motorola Droid, and found myself not using the physical keyboard at all.06-24-10 01:38 PMLike 0
- I went from a Droid (subpar keyboard in my opinion) to an Eris, and was perfectly happy with all touch, although a majority of the satisfaction was due to the great (ie small) form factor. I recently switched to an Ally, which has a fantastic keyboard. It is much easier for me to bang out messages than with the Eris.
I am very intrigued by the Droid X...with a screen that large, the on board keyboard will be spacious, and more importantly, won't take up as much screen real estate like with the smaller screen touch phones. That's my biggest reason for wanting a physical keyboard, I can see a full email while typing, and other situations like that.
Hopefully we as consumers will always have the choice...
Rob06-24-10 02:26 PMLike 0 - I want a physical keyboard, no matter how "antiquated" that sounds. I'll settle for the Droid's but I really would prefer the redesigned one from the Droid2.IMO,if Android wants to increase it's use with power buisness users handset makers would be smart to offer at least a few models with actual QWERTY pads.06-24-10 02:33 PMLike 0
- 06-24-10 03:10 PMLike 0
- I use the HTC IME keyboard and find it to work better. I tried Swype a couple times and it's nice but I'm just so used to typing rather than swiping. I may give it a shot again in the future but for now it's HTC IME for me.06-24-10 03:16 PMLike 0
- 06-24-10 03:19 PMLike 0
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I won't go so far to say that in some murky, distant future, you won't find a single smartphone that has no physical keyboard. After all, the flip phone fell out of favor long ago, and you can still find those with any wireless carrier. But in terms of popular use, the physical keyboard is dying, and Droid X is helping arrange the funeral.06-24-10 03:26 PMLike 0 - Motorola can make an excellent keyboard,if it wants to.Just look at the Moto Q9c and Q9 Global.How about a Moto Droid using the BB 9800 slider design?06-24-10 03:34 PMLike 0
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As we embrace touch screen phones more today than we ever had, they will continue to grow in popularity, but I think a phone manufacture that underestimates the market for physical keyboards is only hurting themselves : )
RIM is a big player, even today for a very good reason, security policies, and physical keyboards. For the writer of that article to exclude them from the equation makes no sense to me.06-24-10 03:52 PMLike 0 - It is that particular writer for PC world, rofl. Look at the title....the writer is clearly saying physical keyboards are going extinct in "terms" and Motorola's X is a big reason. I disagree, and think there will always be a large market for the "real" keyboards. The droid launched a 1/2 year ago and was one of the best selling keyboarded phones Verizon carries. I personally can live with a virtual keyboard or a physical keyboard, but honestly, I think the writer is just rousting the millions that use a physical keyboard. It is NOT an endangered species, and it won't be for a considerable amount of time to come....yeah, I firmly disagree with his viewpoint, and you all can say what you want
As we embrace touch screen phones more today than we ever had, they will continue to grow in popularity, but I think a phone manufacture that underestimates the market for physical keyboards is only hurting themselves : )
RIM is a big player, even today for a very good reason, security policies, and physical keyboards. For the writer of that article to exclude them from the equation makes no sense to me.06-24-10 04:11 PMLike 0 - I agree that he goes a little "over the top" in promoting the death of the physical keyboard, but I didn't take what he said as "iron-clad science" so much as I did as pointing out an obvious (to me anyway! ) trend in how these phones are being designed. Of course we can agree to disagree.
Never mind we disagree happily06-24-10 04:17 PMLike 0 -
- The lack of a physical keyboard is the biggest draw for me to move to the X I am loving the droid now with Froyo. The screen size of the X might be too big for me but if not, I will be getting the X because I want the slide out gone. I just hope the rooting and Froyo are not too far behind LOL06-24-10 07:09 PMLike 0
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I installed the ported Multi-touch keyboard from the Droid X and it works great, but it doesn't have all the long press options for numbers and symbols like HTC IME keyboards.06-24-10 07:47 PMLike 0 - Maybe they aren't up to speed yet! lol man i loved my keyboard on my droid. I could type so fast and accurate with it much better than the touch screen on my Incredible. but HTC does have the best on screen keyboard.
I installed the ported Multi-touch keyboard from the Droid X and it works great, but it doesn't have all the long press options for numbers and symbols like HTC IME keyboards.06-24-10 08:17 PMLike 0 - ha ha, yeah. HTC does have one of the best software keyboards. Something tells me the ported X keyboard is flawed, and with some bugs not running on the X. I heart physical keyboards too, and it is nice to have 100% screen real estate, and 0% of that eaten by a keyboard at times. I can live without it too though. *sigh*
i didn't find any bugs at all. works perfect with the built in dictionary.06-24-10 08:19 PMLike 0
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