[BlackBerry Guy]

If I absolutely had to use a touchscreen only phone I would be ok, it just isn't my preference.

I can usually tell who's using an all touch device and who's not...auto-correct does some funny things . I'd love to see a type off between a hardware keyboard user and a software keyboard user with all auto-correction turned off.

[_StephenBB81]

I had that problem with lack of feedback on the iPhone, and I hate using noise as a substitute feedback. My device uses a touch of vibe as a haptic feedback that satisfies my need for sensation. It's probably the saving grace on a touchscreen for me.

I'm all about the deceleration of my fingers when I make contact with the keyboard,

I attribute keyboard vs touchscreen as the different between walking on Grass vs walking on concrete bare foot.
sure for both are fine for short periods of time, but after hours upon hours, the person walking on grass will feel much less repetitive strain injury than those on concrete

[dwaynewilliams#WN]

I'm all about the deceleration of my fingers when I make contact with the keyboard,

I attribute keyboard vs touchscreen as the different between walking on Grass vs walking on concrete bare foot.
sure for both are fine for short periods of time, but after hours upon hours, the person walking on grass will feel much less repetitive strain injury than those on concrete

That is a very interesting point.

[JR A]

I'm a very insecure human being.

I need validation for everything I do, including typing, even if that means the validation is coming from the keys themselves.

The tactile response, the feel of those keys, and the clickity-clack sound they make is what I love.


Joking aside...


Can I type on a touchscreen? Yeah. Can I type faster on a physical keyboard? Debatable.

But is the keyboard more comfortable and convenient for me? DAMN STRAIGHT.

[papped]

Ended up regretting every full touch phone ive owned.

Luckily i can use bridge remote on my playbook.

[Joltcola1234]

So They should stop making manual transmission cars completely because people who want them are in the minority?


The touch screen form factor is great, but it doesn't come close to meeting everyones needs.

It depends if they can still make money off the manual transmissions or not.

[sleepngbear]

I'm a very insecure human being.

I need validation for everything I do, including typing, even if that means the validation is coming from the keys themselves.

Oh well that's just great. Not only are we all in denial, but we're all insecure too. May as well throw in antisocial while we're at it.

The tactile response, the feel of those keys, and the clickity-clack sound they make is what I love.


Joking aside...


Can I type on a touchscreen? Yeah. Can I type faster on a physical keyboard? Debatable.

But is the keyboard more comfortable and convenient for me? DAMN STRAIGHT.

This ... mostly. I know that I can type faster on a physical keyboard than I can on virtual. Yeah, I'm sure there are some out there who can type faster on a virtual than I can on a physical. But they're not me (and they're probably thankful for that).

[PineappleUnderTheSea]

I have the 9800, and I find that BOTH the physical keyboard and the touch keyboard are sucky. I've never had the other issues you are having, but I find the 9800 mediocre in general, so it makes every little problem I have with it appear 10 times worse!

The keyboard on the 9900 is very nice, much much better than the crap on the 9800. But as far as touchscreen keyboards, I have no issues typing on my iPod. In fact, I type better on it than the 9800. So a touchscreen would be no issues for me for the next BB10, unless they aren't as responsive as the keyboards on the iPhones.

[_StephenBB81]

It depends if they can still make money off the manual transmissions or not.

The form factor isn't what is costing RIM money

I am sure Keyboard phones are still profitable, it is the OS feature set that consumers are after, and yelling at RIM about.

I'm not 100% sure, but I suspect when typing the Bold 9900 has as much viewing area as the iPhone 4S does, so the screen real estate for those that use their phone as input devices isn't an advantage but a keyboard is

[up488]

Lovin' my full touch. It wasnt too much of an adjustment at all coming from a physical keyboard.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9860 using Tapatalk

[JR A]

Oh well that's just great. Not only are we all in denial, but we're all insecure too. May as well throw in antisocial while we're at it.



This ... mostly. I know that I can type faster on a physical keyboard than I can on virtual. Yeah, I'm sure there are some out there who can type faster on a virtual than I can on a physical. But they're not me (and they're probably thankful for that).

Finally, SOMEBODY gets my humor.

[Jonathank]

I'm with u on that 1. Clickaty clack beats touch anyday

[dwaynewilliams#WN]

I find that it is a lot easier for me to type without looking at the keys with a physical keyboard.

[Joltcola1234]

The form factor isn't what is costing RIM money

I am sure Keyboard phones are still profitable, it is the OS feature set that consumers are after, and yelling at RIM about.

I'm not 100% sure, but I suspect when typing the Bold 9900 has as much viewing area as the iPhone 4S does, so the screen real estate for those that use their phone as input devices isn't an advantage but a keyboard is

Isn't RIM the only keyboard phone available right now? At least the only notable one? Isn't it possible RIM could be losing money over the next couple quarters? I'm not sure how profitable keyboard phones are right now? More importantly how profitable they will be going forward. Which causes me to question why they would EOL the full touch screen phones they have now, but that is another story...

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "OS feature set", but I think its the apps people are after the most, and is obviously RIM's huge weakness.

BlackBerry fans keep clamoring over these keyboards, but two huge mobile phone companies that are completely destroying RIM right now offer no keyboards at all, and I don't see any of those users asking for them. With the iPhone moving further and further into RIM's traditional territory, without a keyboard, it seems to me that the niche the keyboard fills among traditional users is shrinking.

[dwaynewilliams#WN]

Isn't RIM the only keyboard phone available right now? At least the only notable one? Isn't it possible RIM could be losing money over the next couple quarters? I'm not sure how profitable keyboard phones are right now? More importantly how profitable they will be going forward. Which causes me to question why they would EOL the full touch screen phones they have now, but that is another story...

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "OS feature set", but I think its the apps people are after the most, and is obviously RIM's huge weakness.

BlackBerry fans keep clamoring over these keyboards, but two huge mobile phone companies that are completely destroying RIM right now offer no keyboards at all, and I don't see any of those users asking for them. With the iPhone moving further and further into RIM's traditional territory, without a keyboard, it seems to me that the niche the keyboard fills among traditional users is shrinking.

you could be right about the market for physical keyboards could be shrinking. But it doesn't necessarily mean that there aren't enough of us who prefer a physical keyboard to keep this "niche" market going strong. I look at my BB the same as my laptop. I do use my iPad a lot, but for some things, I have to use a laptop because it is faster and more efficient. I don't care how popular tablets become, I will always need a laptop.

[Joltcola1234]

you could be right about the market for physical keyboards could be shrinking. But it doesn't necessarily mean that there aren't enough of us who prefer a physical keyboard to keep this "niche" market going strong. I look at my BB the same as my laptop. I do use my iPad a lot, but for some things, I have to use a laptop because it is faster and more efficient. I don't care how popular tablets become, I will always need a laptop.

I have no doubt that there will always be users who want keyboards on a phone. Just like some people will insist on using a laptop over a tablet. I don't think the laptop and tablet comparison or argument can really be made at the moment because they are fairly far apart.

BlackBerry needs to pull in more users, they need more of the market badly. In order to do that they need to pull people from Android and Apple, people who obviously do not care or want a keyboard. I can't honestly see how RIM can successfully do that with a keyboard phone.

[BergerKing]

I'm all about the deceleration of my fingers when I make contact with the keyboard,

I attribute keyboard vs touchscreen as the different between walking on Grass vs walking on concrete bare foot.
sure for both are fine for short periods of time, but after hours upon hours, the person walking on grass will feel much less repetitive strain injury than those on concrete

I guess my touch is light enough it doesnt bother me. Im not trying to beat it into submission, after all.

[ADozenEggs@aol.com]

I would not want to return to physical keyboard device.

Mobile post via Tapatalk

Me nether. I actually took out my Palm pre the other day and connected to wifi. Go figure.

Typing on the Keyboard felt so weird. I'm two years on a TS phone.

[_StephenBB81]

I have no doubt that there will always be users who want keyboards on a phone. Just like some people will insist on using a laptop over a tablet. I don't think the laptop and tablet comparison or argument can really be made at the moment because they are fairly far apart.

BlackBerry needs to pull in more users, they need more of the market badly. In order to do that they need to pull people from Android and Apple, people who obviously do not care or want a keyboard. I can't honestly see how RIM can successfully do that with a keyboard phone.

Oh BlackBerry certainly can't take the market only with a qwerty phone, I agree fully they need a touchscreen,
But they should also have a qwerty device at least 2 models are needed for RIM to successful

[_StephenBB81]

I guess my touch is light enough it doesnt bother me. Im not trying to beat it into submission, after all.

I type with a purpose, also am easily doing 5000 words a day, so it is the repititive motion.
Watch Finding Forster
"Punch the keys for gods sake"

[Stewartj1]

RIM needs to appeal to a much broader market than just us in order to survive so for that reason alone I hope the first bb10 phone is all touch.

I'll happily buy one and happily muddle along until a bb10 slider comes along.

BTW, I do, in fact, like the touch on my PB.

[BlackBerry Guy]

I'm not 100% sure, but I suspect when typing the Bold 9900 has as much viewing area as the iPhone 4S does, so the screen real estate for those that use their phone as input devices isn't an advantage but a keyboard is

Once you bring the software keyboard up, the screen height is about the same. The 9900 display is actually slightly larger width wise.

Here's one of my 9900s next to my iPod touch (same 3.5" display as the iPhone) for reference



Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[_StephenBB81]

Once you bring the software keyboard up, the screen height is about the same. The 9900 display is actually slightly larger width wise.

Here's one of my 9900s next to my iPod touch (same 3.5" display as the iPhone) for reference

Click to view quoted image


Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

Thank you.

So if you are a "doer" vs a "viewer"
Pixel Width is the same between the iPhone 4S & the 9900
but the 9900 has approximately 10% wider viewing area, and same physical height, making the screen size argument a null and void argument any time one is doing text entry.

[sleepngbear]

Isn't RIM the only keyboard phone available right now? At least the only notable one?

Nope. There are at least a couple of QWERTY Windows Phones, and I think every Android manufacturer has one or more as well. Some of these are sliders, and none of them compete well with BlackBerry's (which may be part of why they don't make many of them), but they all do recognize that there is still a market for phones with keyboards.

[_StephenBB81]

Isn't RIM the only keyboard phone available right now? At least the only notable one? Isn't it possible RIM could be losing money over the next couple quarters? I'm not sure how profitable keyboard phones are right now? More importantly how profitable they will be going forward. Which causes me to question why they would EOL the full touch screen phones they have now, but that is another story...

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "OS feature set", but I think its the apps people are after the most, and is obviously RIM's huge weakness.

BlackBerry fans keep clamoring over these keyboards, but two huge mobile phone companies that are completely destroying RIM right now offer no keyboards at all, and I don't see any of those users asking for them. With the iPhone moving further and further into RIM's traditional territory, without a keyboard, it seems to me that the niche the keyboard fills among traditional users is shrinking.

RIM is the only strong selling portrait keyboard phne right now yes.
RIM's loss of money is NOT form factor based, if it was RIM would have lost money on BB6 devices, RIM lost money because their OS doesn't support easy app development, and thus app developers have all but ignored OS7.
If RIM devices had Skype, Netflix, Kindle, instagram etc, the majority of the RIM hating comments would be vanishing, and those who like Keyboards could keep the keyboard, but for some, the software matters more than the hardware, just as the reverse is true for others.

The faltering keyboard form factor is due to RIM's inability to address app shortfalls with their current OS, BB10 SHOULD fix that. and allow people who want keyboard to have a full featured OS with an App ecosystem and hopefully content ecosystem.


as for Apple and Android not offering keyboard, there are some Android devices with keyboards but they are poorly made, as well Android and iOS are not keyboard friendly OS's one has to make the OS take advantage of the Keyboard, it is more than just entering letters on the screen it is device integration, the keyboard short cuts, it isn't worth it for Apple to make a keyboard device, 1 because it would be against everything Steve Jobs believed, and 2, it would be major over haul to iOS and damage their app centric development. for Android it could be done, but it isn't worth it because more users are viewers over doers with their devices. so that is the bigger market share to chase.

RIM needs to be in Both