Why couldn't the BB Touch/Torch/9950 look like this?!

[chiefbroski]

So(EDIT: After seeing the new all-touch blackberry torch or w/e on the crackberry homepage) I was a little puzzled why RIM couldn't put an all-touchscreen together that looked sleek and stuck with pre-school calculator-like buttons on the front. I used google sketchup to create a model of what I thought/hoped the new all-touchscreen blackberry was going to look like.

Some pictures are attached.

Features include:
-Dual speakers(not neccesary, they should make a fake other one to be symmetric)
-Long led like at bottom of the phone which glows instead of a small led!
-Larger BB logo on back
-Surface has Carbon fibre look
-Buttons are the same ones found on the bb 9900 except carbon fibre-look surface
-An extra left convenience key that is grooved to make it easier to find
-Lock and mute buttons are flush/hidden as usual (keeping good idea )
-Optical trackpad should have a multicoloured leds around it!

Sorry for the cheap button designs, I got lazy.

Tell me what you think! Is this design better or worse than the current one?
What would you add to improve it?

[mjs416]

Actually - did you check out the main Crackberry home page? There's a pic of the new bold touch and some other full touch screen phone that showed up on the streets of Toronto. Its look pretty close to what you designed - just not the diamond plate skin

[chiefbroski]

Yeah, thats what I was talking about. The physical buttons look kinda cheap on that one. Despite being practical, but being practical doesn't sell to most consumers(for example EDIT: iphone emphasizes design over practicality, and it sells a lot). Jeez, I thought people knew what I meant, I guess people rather point out minor mistakes than talk about the topic.

[andyahs]

Originally Posted by chiefbroski

Yeah, thats what I was talking about. The physical buttons look kinda cheap on that one. Despite being practical, but being practical doesn't sell to most consumers(for example: iphone).

The iPhone doesn't sell? Really?

[chiefbroski]

sorry, I meant the iphone sells a lot

[flyersfan76]

Originally Posted by andyahs

The iPhone doesn't sell? Really?

I believe he meant that the iPhone doesn't appear to be practical. The iPhone sells SO whether a device is practical or not doesn't matter to consumers.

[2001bmw330xi]

mockup looks like droid x.

[EchoTango]

I agree, it looks like a Droid X or even and iPhone.

You have to decide what's more important, how it looks on the coffee table or who it feels in your hand. Making devices with sharp edges definitely improves the looks and makes them very modern/spacey looking.

RIM has clearly decided to round out the edges to improve the feel of the devices in the hand at the cost of the unit's appearance.

[grahamf]

I think it looks a little like the Windows Phone 7 device from Nokia.

Except black, and hard edges.

[mjordan5]

I wouldn't mind seeing that phone in production maybe minus the diamondplate and go with a carbon fiber look or similar to what they did to the bold 9900. Mike

[tatperson]

I want a Blackberry smartphone that has an LED-lit logo at the front.

[Kennedy.L]

Originally Posted by andyahs

The iPhone doesn't sell? Really?

iPhone isn't practical.