[RJB55]

Twitter update from Blackberry News:
Confirmed: BlackBerry 10 full touchscreen and physical keyboard models to be announced and marketed together.

[byul]

Front page news.

Confirmed: BlackBerry 10 full touchscreen and physical keyboard models will be announced and marketed together | CrackBerry.com

[RJB55]

Yeah that popped up after I hit send on my post. Always a bit late it seems.

Mod please delete if deemed redundant.

[Ben1232]

Inching closer to a confirmed launch date

[JasW]

It doesn't take a marketing genius to figure out this is the only way to go, and I thought as much last year when the "BBX Colt" was floated as the debut device. You go with your strengths and what you're known for. Debuting a full touch as the first BB10 device runs too high a risk of a collective "meh." When most people think of BB, they think of the physical keyboard. They also think of 2005. So the physical QWERTY BB10 can be marketed as the BB for today ... and tomorrow. This is not 2005's BB. Etc.

[gtpointer]

It doesn't take a marketing genius to figure out this is the only way to go, and I thought as much last year when the "BBX Colt" was floated as the debut device. You go with your strengths and what you're known for. Debuting a full touch as the first BB10 device runs too high a risk of a collective "meh." When most people think of BB, they think of the physical keyboard. They also think of 2005. So the physical QWERTY BB10 can be marketed as the BB for today ... and tomorrow. This is not 2005's BB. Etc.

Strange, your logic seems to indicate they should debut with a full touch device (which they somewhat are as it will hit stores first)...BB is known for keyboard devices and their reputation is hardly great. The best way to shake off that reputation is to say "hey look we can do something different from what we've always done - we can do what you're doing, and we can do it well/better" and then at the same time/later go "oh yeah, and that thing we've always done amazingly? that just got better". All touch is key to BB10's success, not the keyboard. The iPhone has shifted vast swathes of people off keyboards, a few may come back, but the main market lies in all touch. Launching keyboard first would result in a collective "meh" IMO.

[SPO10Kaloy]

i just can't wait. but i guess i have to wait even more and wait for the white version may it be full touch or qwerty. i'm so excited..! RIM FTW!

Sent from my BlackBerry 9320 using Tapatalk

[mithrazor]

Strange, your logic seems to indicate they should debut with a full touch device (which they somewhat are as it will hit stores first)...BB is known for keyboard devices and their reputation is hardly great. The best way to shake off that reputation is to say "hey look we can do something different from what we've always done - we can do what you're doing, and we can do it well/better" and then at the same time/later go "oh yeah, and that thing we've always done amazingly? that just got better". All touch is key to BB10's success, not the keyboard. The iPhone has shifted vast swathes of people off keyboards, a few may come back, but the main market lies in all touch. Launching keyboard first would result in a collective "meh" IMO.

I just want to add for majority of customers, virtual keyboard gets them by just fine. So having a keyboard isn't something they'd want to go to.

Plus they see having a keyboard as "backwards" step.

[hpjrt]

The full touchscreen may be seen by some as "okay" but almost without exception the virtual keyboards results in very odd text messages. In other words, people are deluding themselves if they think they can type legibly and accurately on virtual keyboards. It's also the most complained about feature from friends who have iPads.

I will always opt for a keyboard over a virtual one if I get the choice. Just my two cents.

[JasW]

Strange, your logic seems to indicate they should debut with a full touch device (which they somewhat are as it will hit stores first)...BB is known for keyboard devices and their reputation is hardly great. The best way to shake off that reputation is to say "hey look we can do something different from what we've always done - we can do what you're doing, and we can do it well/better" and then at the same time/later go "oh yeah, and that thing we've always done amazingly? that just got better". All touch is key to BB10's success, not the keyboard. The iPhone has shifted vast swathes of people off keyboards, a few may come back, but the main market lies in all touch. Launching keyboard first would result in a collective "meh" IMO.

I'm not saying ignore the full touch, just that it's not going to distinguish BB from the rest of the crowd, no matter how awesome BB10 may turn out to be. The iPhone 5 is already going to have made a huge splash, and of course there will be the Win 8 phones. There are still plenty of people who want physical keyboards, perhaps not the majority of consumers, but a significant enough portion that it's well worth playing up as what BB is unquestionably is best known for to distinguish itself amidst the i5 and W8 mania.

[amazinglygraceless]

From a market positioning standpoint the release of the two devices close to each
other makes total sense.

Face it, a full touch device will get lost in the sea of iOS and Android slabs no matter
how good the platform is.

RIMMs advantage will be that it can cater to both segments of the smartphone
market. You want a full touch that rivals the competition, we got you covered.
You want the new platform with the keyboard interface that we are so well known
for, we got you covered there too.

iOS does not afford this choice and very few Androids do, so right from the word
go RIMM has distinguished itself from the competition in a very real way.

[jegs2]

I will always opt for a keyboard over a virtual one if I get the choice. Just my two cents.

Concur. Tried the 9850 and didn't care for it, and don't care for my wife's iPhone either. Full physical keyboard or bust!

[sleepngbear]

The full touchscreen may be seen by some as "okay" but almost without exception the virtual keyboards results in very odd text messages. In other words, people are deluding themselves if they think they can type legibly and accurately on virtual keyboards. It's also the most complained about feature from friends who have iPads.

I will always opt for a keyboard over a virtual one if I get the choice. Just my two cents.

Careful there ... quite a few people here swear by their touch screens and insist it's only a matter of getting used to them. I can't get used to it (in fact I HATE it), but obviously a lot of people have no problem with it. I need the physical keyboard, too. But I will give the BB10 virtual one a good look anyway, just to say I did, and because you never know if maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks.

[bbmme]

I will probably buy both of them eh

[gtpointer]

A full touch device will be hard to stand out amongst other phones...because keyboard phones are doing so well despite standing out...ahem. The iphone manages to stand out in amongst all touch phones. I'm not saying an all touch BB will sell as well as an iphone but the idea that a keyboard BB10 phone is RIM's saviour is something right out of Mike and Jim's playbook (ha ). A lot of users in here think "because this is what I want, this is what BB neds to do" whilst forgetting they are not the average consumer. This is the same reason cameras and capacitive touch took so long to come to BBs. A lot of users here will appreciate a keyboard BB10 phone, but RIM needs new converts to stabalise its business and an all touch device is essential to that. What RIM needs to stand out from atm is not other all touch devices but the old RIM, and the successful launch of an all touch device is essential for that.

[mithrazor]

The full touchscreen may be seen by some as "okay" but almost without exception the virtual keyboards results in very odd text messages. In other words, people are deluding themselves if they think they can type legibly and accurately on virtual keyboards. It's also the most complained about feature from friends who have iPads.

I will always opt for a keyboard over a virtual one if I get the choice. Just my two cents.

I think you're alluding to iOS's virtual keyboard to all virtual keyboards. Swype, Swiftkey, and a few other Android ones actually do a pretty good job.

Also haptic feedback helps a lot also.

[lengend]

I was a 9700 user and now currently a 9900 user. I am not getting the QWERTY version of bb10, I'm opting for the full touch. I think the virtual keyboard will be stellar but obviously not as good as a physical keyboard. I need the screen real estate. Just my two cents

[Spencerdl]

All I have to say is "just release them already".......meh

[sleepngbear]

A full touch device will be hard to stand out amongst other phones...because keyboard phones are doing so well despite standing out...ahem. The iphone manages to stand out in amongst all touch phones. I'm not saying an all touch BB will sell as well as an iphone but the idea that a keyboard BB10 phone is RIM's saviour is something right out of Mike and Jim's playbook (ha ). A lot of users in here think "because this is what I want, this is what BB neds to do" whilst forgetting they are not the average consumer. This is the same reason cameras and capacitive touch took so long to come to BBs. A lot of users here will appreciate a keyboard BB10 phone, but RIM needs new converts to stabalise its business and an all touch device is essential to that. What RIM needs to stand out from atm is not other all touch devices but the old RIM, and the successful launch of an all touch device is essential for that.

And this is exactly why RIM is releasing both a full touch and a QWERTY version, one to attract the touch screen crowd, and one to keep the keyboard faithful happy. I don't think anybody in their right mind is expecting BB10 to sell as well as iPhone, let alone outsell it. Rather, we are expecting it will attract enough attention to pull some measurable portion of existing and new smart phone users from Apple and Android devices manufacturers and start growing market share again instead of losing it.

[morlock_man]

Considering that RIM's device is a mobile computer designed to integrate into a variety of other embedded and non-embedded systems versus a standalone platform for personal use, BB10 has a much brighter future than iOS.

There's some research demonstrating that porting Apple's software base to the L4 kernel family instead of using Mach's overly complex IPC demonstrates significant performance gains. It's probably the only way that Apple could possibly keep pace with what BB10 represents.

But it will take them years to successfully transition to an updated platform, during which RIM will be able to secure their marketplace.

And even if they do attempt that kind of transition, they'll still have to deal with the QNX patents on SMP and TDP implementation in microkernels.

But then, I'm sure a lot of people here would accuse me of not being in my right mind.

[gtpointer]

And this is exactly why RIM is releasing both a full touch and a QWERTY version, one to attract the touch screen crowd, and one to keep the keyboard faithful happy. I don't think anybody in their right mind is expecting BB10 to sell as well as iPhone, let alone outsell it. Rather, we are expecting it will attract enough attention to pull some measurable portion of existing and new smart phone users from Apple and Android devices manufacturers and start growing market share again instead of losing it.

Slpngbear - yes I agree, but I was pointing out in response to the OP that the full touch is far more important to BB10's success - people who want keyboards have nowhere else to go really.

[vtpmt81]

The full touchscreen may be seen by some as "okay" but almost without exception the virtual keyboards results in very odd text messages. In other words, people are deluding themselves if they think they can type legibly and accurately on virtual keyboards. It's also the most complained about feature from friends who have iPads.

I will always opt for a keyboard over a virtual one if I get the choice. Just my two cents.

A lot of people will agree with you. Personally I could type just as fast on Storm 2 as I could on my Curve 8330. If typing speed is negligible, then give me the screen real estate.

However, I am glad that RIM is releasing a touch screen and hardware keyboard phone in early 2013 to make everyone happy. I just wish they were releasing a slider phone with the touch screen and hardware keyboard phone as well. It looks like a BB10 slider phone won't be coming out for a while.