Why isn't there more choice of QWERTY smart phones

Ricochet J · 2 Oct 2011 at 09:20

Online reports suggest consumers want a powerful touchscreen smart phone with a QWERTY keyboard.

Why aren't there more available on the UK market?

alex24 · 2 Oct 2011 at 09:29

The UK market has been told they all want iPhones.

chrismscotland · 2 Oct 2011 at 09:29

Not sure really, theres been a couple the Nokia E7 and the HTC Desire Z spring to mind from the last 6 months or so, at the time the Desire Z was probably one of the most powerful smartphones being the Desire with a keyboard, wonder if they're bring out another one, failing that it seems that only Blackberry are still rolling out the QWERTY phones.

Sumanji · 2 Oct 2011 at 11:03

alex24 said:
The UK market has been told they all want iPhones.

+1

Milestone 2 is a nice phone IMO, but it's a shame the Droid 3 / Milestone 3 probably won't be released outside the US...

Here's hoping for some Moto/Google loving in the near future!

Robbo · 2 Oct 2011 at 12:09

Because just about everyone can easily learn to type fast on a decent modern touch screen phone.

The only thing stopping people from doing it is stubbornness and refusing to learn how to do it.

If it's that much of a huge issue, go for a BlackBerry of some sort.

v0n · 2 Oct 2011 at 13:46

Don't know about "consumers want" - just about any qwerty slider with touchscreen was a commercial flop in Europe. People, in general don't want bricks like my Milestone to carry around. Nokia holds very open ended patents for most slide-at-angle mechanisms, which doesn't help to come up with anything decent for this market either. Choice is very limited and design by default has to be chunky and thick.
Blackberry even tried with half qwerty flippers/clams, rather than sliders, which I personally thought was a good idea - large screen + separate panel with keyboard, easy to text one handed, girls would love it, but idea was badly executed - you couldn't use it in a car, since the screen wouldn't turn and fold.

manveruppd · 2 Oct 2011 at 13:48

I have to say, now that I'm regularly using both the Desire Z and the Pre 3, I much prefer the portrait keyboard form factor! The keys are a lot more cramped of course (especially for someone who used an HTC Universal for 6 years

) but you soon get used to it, and you can just about use it 1-handed as well, which is a bit bonus.

Glaucus · 2 Oct 2011 at 14:04

Really? Got a link to what consumers want?

Keyboard adds weight and size. Most people do not do extensive typing on a phone so is pretty pointless for mass market.

I also find most qwerty phones pretty unusable, black dreys being the worst.

Skeeter · 2 Oct 2011 at 15:48

I want HW keyboards.

I've had to buy a Sensation as I have been waiting for a HW phone that has never arrived.

Its nothing to do with the 'just learn to use a touchscreen' argument that people keep ignorantly throwing about, its all about the screen real estate. It annoys me that my screen shrinks to half the size when I want to type something. The whole 'press button to open keyboard, type, press to close' bugs me too. And the lack of a D Pad can be frustrating when trying to edit text precisely.

It is all the iPhone's fault though. Because of its popularity all other manufacturers have cloned its layout. I guarantee if the iPhone had a HW keyboard, there would be eleventy billion Android HW phones to choose from.

Its not a life threatening issue, its just a personal preference, but in a market so saturated as the smartphone market, personal preference can be very important.

Sumanji · 2 Oct 2011 at 18:10

Skeeter said:
...its all about the screen real estate.

This.

Even with Swype, which has basically been the saving grace for touch screen phones for me, I would take a decent hardware keyboard in a heartbeat.

And for games, on-screen touch controls can basically GTFO, they're horrendous. Give me a D-pad/arrow keys any day of the week.

Droid 4 please, Mr. Googorola :cool:

manveruppd · 2 Oct 2011 at 18:33

I could honestly type faster on an old keypad Nokia with T9 than on a touchscreen, and believe me, I tried. And I could also do so without having to look down on the phone, which kept me from bumping into streetlights when texting while walking.

But a small part of me also simply hates me-too-ism and the homogenisation of the market. Different people like different things, I don't want some dude at Apple telling me what I like. I'm a grown-up, I can try different input methods and see for myself, so **** off!

muon · 2 Oct 2011 at 18:36

Because all the qwerty buyers (texting and BBM using girls) seem to prefer blackberries. I know that the xperia mini did pretty well amongst the same group, so there does seem to be a market for a small device like that.

sharingan_sasuk · 2 Oct 2011 at 20:07

My choice for using a Blackberry over a touchscreen is not due to stubbornness or refusing to change.

I've had many phones such as the iPhone 4 and yet I still prefer to type on my Blackberry 9900. I work in a major phone retail store and I get to play with all the latest handsets everyday.

Everyone has their preferences when it comes to typing. It's like how some people find some laptop keyboards more comfortable to type on than others. There's no point advising someone which is best to type on unless they try it out for themselves.

Steeps · 3 Oct 2011 at 01:41

Since 2005 I've always had a phone with a hardware keyboard as I've always preferred the accuracy with my fat thumbs, I can physically feel when I'm on the right key to hit it and can apply pressure on the button to secure the contact but on a touch there's no feel of that. In portrait I'm useless at typing and it's just as quick to flick out the keyboard, mash a few keystrokes and slide the phone back in knowing that I've not mistyped anything. Small Hi-res screen and slide out qwerty any day for me, wish they made the X1 either droid or wp7.

Rich_L · 3 Oct 2011 at 01:50

Although I rarely use it, I like having the option of the HW keyboard on my Droid - it mainly gets used if I'm writing a decent length e-mail or document - for a start it means you don't lose any screen real estate to a software keyboard and also it seems more accurate on longer documents.

Raikiri · 3 Oct 2011 at 02:35

Supply and demand, there's not a huge amount of people who are that bothered by it. Which is a shame because generally proper keyboards > onscreen ones.

manveruppd said:
But a small part of me also simply hates me-too-ism and the homogenisation of the market. Different people like different things, I don't want some dude at Apple telling me what I like. I'm a grown-up, I can try different input methods and see for myself, so **** off!

I'm sorry but what does this have to do with Apple?

Myshra · 3 Oct 2011 at 08:53

Raikiri said:
Supply and demand, there's not a huge amount of people who are that bothered by it.

This is it

Keyboards work for BB because in part due to their history and clients. In general they cost more to make/maintain (pain in the arse design, RMA warranty repair % goes up a LOT) and take up a lot of space that could be a better battery etc...

They don't sell in enough quantities to make it all that worth it for the networks to resell either which is a huge sticking point. The satisfaction of use from them is high for business but nowhere near as good for consumers either :/

Sanchez · 3 Oct 2011 at 09:16

I'd take a QWERY keyboard over a full touch screen any day. There really is no substitute in my eyes. I really miss the one on my N97.

If HTC had released something like a Sensation Z then I would have taken that over my Galaxy 2 any day of the week.

Aod · 3 Oct 2011 at 10:13

I use the hardware keyboard on my Desire-Z 99% of the time, and i even have Swype installed which i rarely ever use.

the hardware keyboard allows me to use the SSH and local terminals properly which means that i can use my phone almost like a proper computer.

I've yet to see an on-screen-keyboard that's as comfortable to use as a hardware one.

That's not to say that i've not tried. between having my Desire-Z and my milestone i had the SanFran, and i got fairly proficient at banging out text with the predictive-virtual keyboards that were available, but frequently I was irritated by their lack of flexibility compared to a hardware keyboard.

manveruppd · 3 Oct 2011 at 14:27

Raikiri said:
I'm sorry but what does this have to do with Apple?

Well every other phone manufacturer makes several different form factors to please several different kinds of customers, but not Apple. They released one form factor and basically told everyone else to suck it. It's a really arrogant attitude. They argue that touchscreens are as good as hardware keyboards now, but of course the main reason they did it is because of the savings associated with having a single SKU and because of the marketing advantages that having a single form factor (especially one that looked like it teleported in from the future) would give them.

You could argue that the market proved Apple right, and the amount of people who buy their phones prove that it IS good enough for a substantial amount of people, but I would argue that a significant proportion of their customers buy them not with considerations of usability in mind but more because of fashion/style concerns. (Not saying it's not a good phone, just saying that a lot of its users don't care that it's a good phone!) As evidence for that statement I posit the persistent prevalence of BlackBerries among teens and young adults despite the fact that:
a. even though that age group should be the most "fashion conscious" customers, they're still buying BBs despite the fact that they're business phones, so while people in their 30s might sorta like their understated designs, they have absolutely no "cool factor" whatsoever, and
b. they're more expensive to own since most providers charge extra for BBS services like BBM.
So, no, touchscreens aren't good enough for most people to type on. Some people are prepared to put up with them because they either don't do a lot of typing or because style is more important to them than usability. But the reason I made a dig at Apple is because they were the first to say "we'll go after only one segment of the consumer market, and force everyone else to conform to it through fashion and peer pressure". And that's not on. I want a choice, and it pains me that most other companies are heading in the same direction, sticking to fewer and fewer form factors. Even HTC, who used to be the kings of hardware keyboards, haven't released a QWERTY phone in about a year now.