Wednesday, November 05, 2008
The iPhone with a keyboard
If there is one feature (or lack thereof) that people talk about is a keyboard for the iPhone.When the iPhone was announced, everyone said "it will never work" because the keyboard was the most important feature for any BlackBerry user (it still is). Therefore, people said "the iPhone will never make it in the enterprise". Now, surprisingly for some, the iPhone is in the enterprise.
True, it is mostly a consumer device. But you hear few people complain about the lack of a keyboard these days. Mostly, because the iPhone is an upgrade from a phone without a keyboard... Therefore, it is better than zero.
However, in many cases people did move from a keyboard-full device to the iPhone. They bitched for a week, balancing the lack of a keyboard with the coolness of the device. Then they forgot about it. They learned. They became proficient at it.
Actually, when we did a test at the OSGR conference, iPhone users won the contest against BlackBerry users for fast typing. It was more than surprising, not only to me but to the iPhone users.
Now that I have used a G1, I was shocked that I found the iPhone virtual keyboard better... I still prefer the BlackBerry keyboard, but I can definitely live with the iPhone one.
When the BlackBerry Storm will hit the stores later this month, we'll see if the tactile feedback they added makes a big difference. I am ready to bet it does. And that it will make all mobile keyboards obsolete.
Unless you are someone that would buy the one in the video below. If you do, then please buy a netbook instead ;-)
Posted by Fabrizio at 16:52
3 Comments:
Mordy said...
I have a relatively simple explanation that I've noticed for the speed of typing:
The sort of people who would buy and learn to type on an iPhone are going to be faster typers than those stuck to BlackBerrys. Its more of a reflection of the demographic of users. Did you have the users switch and test each other's devices?
Honestly, I found I could type faster on a T9 keypad than most blackberry and Treo users of the time. The sort of people who felt that they needed a full qwerty weren't the most proficient at typing... that's just my 2 cents.
As far as the G1 keypad- HTC sort of dropped the ball in designing that one (as you've already mentioned previously). Their other devices, such as the Touch Pro, are simply a pleasure to type on. I'd compare THAT to a BB keyboard for a fair comparison.
Comment Posted at 11:14
Perry Ismangil said...
Talking about Blackberry Storm: can you believe it hasn't got wifi?? How can that even compare with iPhone and Nokia E71?
Comment Posted at 05:23
Paolo Savini said...
iPhone and 360 Chatpad hacked into a wireless mess of need (http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/11/iphone-and-360-chatpad-hacked-into-a-wireless-mess-of-need/)
