The Apple iPhone's 'missing-keyboard' gamble

Link: The iPhone is missing a keyboard – International Herald Tribune

If there is a billion-dollar gamble underlying Apple’s iPhone, it lies in what this smart cellphone does not have: a mechanical keyboard.

I’ve been seeing this story pop up in the Herald Tribune across this week and, well, I didn’t feel that strongly about it then. I go in and out of phases.

I think the iPhone will be successful. But it’ll have a number of polarising issues and I think the keyboard will be one critical factor.

The first thing I thought when I saw the email application on the iPhone was that it was entirely unsuitable for me. I get so much correspondence that would just flood the device. The E61 struggles as it is. And the keyboard entry just looks really, really swish if you’re writing one email a month, but if you’re constantly using it, I don’t think it would be that useful. Same, of course, for T9 entry. I think I still need a mechanical interface to my mobile email device.

Still, I will certainly be taking a look at the iPhone when it’s available.