Analysis: Phone Keyboards - Out of the RDF

Yeah, I'd also like to remind everyone of handhelds like the Sidekick. While not the only handheld-phone-type-thing with a disappearing keyboard, it quite literally is not there when I don't need it. I've also used a touchscreen keyboard on my Nintendo DS web browser (I imported the browser from Japan) and, to answer one of Steve Jobs other questions, I like me a stylus quite a bit, thank you very much! It makes entering info on a touchscreen keyboard much easier. I've found it very hard to press the right buttons without being able to feel them--especially if the buttons are smaller than the tips of my fingers.

I seriously think reliance on a touchscreen keyboard will be a serious flaw for the iPhone which might even cause it to tank.

The demo videos on the Apple site show 2 handed operation. I know they're not real demos, but I figure this means Apple will iron that feature out by the June release.

For those of you who have a PocketPC, try out TenGo. It's a virtual keyboard that replaces the traditional use-with-stylus keyboard on PocketPCs,and you can use your thumbs to type with it. I did not like it all. In my opinion, there is no replacement for a real thumb board (ie Blackberry 8700, which I currently use), if you are sending a lo tof emails / text messages.

@Matt Lu - repeat after me:

I shall not criticise Steve Jobs or Apple or make comments that in someway diss the great man or his thinking.

I shall not second-guess his products in a negative fashion because the faithful who know even less will contradict me.

Follow those two rules and you'll be ok. It's almost the emperor's new phone...

Extensor,
If you truly care about logic, you should limit yourself to arguing the ideas without the snotty and mean-spirited tone. Is it really necessary to try to make someone feel stupid just because you disagree with him? -- especially when that disagreement is about something as trivial as a mobile phone?

I suspect the multi-touch interface allows for a significantly better "thumbing" option than existing single-touch interfaces: When thumbing quickly it's not unusual for two keypresses to have a slight overlap (one key still having a finger after the up-travel, while the next already has a thumb on it): Multitouch should be able to deal with that.

There is missing tactile feedback (for now: iPhone 2 will emit tiny sparks on your fingers to compensate ;-), but audio feedback does help. I'm guessing many could get used to it.

Now that the product has been announced and partially unveiled, Apple will be a little less constrained in testing it (e.g., I suspect several of their VPs and lead designers will be carrying prototypes very soon) and they'll probably fine-tune the interface even more (it's in their "corporate DNA").

I don't know how it will compare with mechanical thumbing boards, but I'm not too worried.

I have a keyboard on my phone, it is useful. I'd gladly trade it in for the thinness of the iPhone and that luscious screen.

Well, some people commented that hard keyboard is not required on cell phone. I completely disagree with that. I used Pocket PC without touch screen in the past and i even had keyboard software which can simulate button on the screen. As per my experience its hard to type on those soft keyboards. Now i switched to a smartphone and now i can type much faster. This is very important for me because i want to type emails or browse through web fast. Also if you take business users, they don't want to spend hours replying to a mail searching for keys on the screen. But definitely its a cool phone for non business use.

I see someone else mentioned the Sidekick, and that's good -- it and the MDA and a few other devices point out that "the keyboard going away when you don't need it" doesn't require a virtual keyboard.

Different phones have different markets, and it's not some kind of terrible insult against Apple to suggest that the iPhone may not be all things to all people. The vast majority of what I do on my Sidekick internet-wise is web browsing, which the iPhone would be great at... and instant messaging, which the iPhone can't do at all. (I mean actual AIM, not SMS.) I also do a fair amount of note-taking, scribbling down recipes and reminders and what have you, and apparently that's something else the iPhone just can't do. Worse, the virtual keyboard is, well, virtual: I can do about 20 wps on the thumb keyboard when I get going, and that's just not gonna happen on anything without tactile feedback, no matter how good the sensing technology is. And last but not least, the main use I have for my iPod is connecting it to my car stereo; mashing it and a cell phone together isn't necessarily compelling to me.

It's possible that others aren't going to make the same calculation I will. That's cool. But saying "the iPhone doesn't do what I want" doesn't make me an ill-informed Apple hater. It just makes me someone who wants IM, wants a good note-taking application and wants a keyboard with good haptic feel.

i have a moto ming its a flip and it has a touchscreen keyboard. it came with a stylus(finger works too) and photo editing and mp3 and calendar its linux based and it had a see through cover to protect the touchscreen and a 2mp camera. i dont miss the tactile feel since i work on a touch screen at work. and im not a 100 wpm typer on a regular keyboard and since most text message limits are 160 characters how much more time is saved really. like driving fast on the freeway and still getting stopped at an off ramp redlight no time saved just more gas used.
i want something to hold my small but important to me mp3 collection and small video collection.
and i need a (cooler than my friends have) phone to make phone calls.