RIM says new BlackBerry won't come with keyboard

[QuintonB]

New BlackBerry won’t have a keyboard: RIM

The first BlackBerry device running Research In Motion’s new software will not have a physical keyboard.

[Ockie]

This I think will really piss off many die hard Blackberry fans for who the physical keyboard is one of the big attractions...and there are many of them out there.

[marine1]

Well then goodbye BB, thatone of the main reasons for me having one.

[Viva]

Well then goodbye BB, thatone of the main reasons for me having one.

Here..

Research in Motion Ltd. spokeswomen Rebecca Freiburger said Thursday that the new BlackBerry 10 software will be offered on devices with physical keyboards in the future, but she declined to say when

[Kosmik]

BB fans who follow crackberry will know this. They claim to have made the touch screen keyboard very responsive and folks who have played on the dev device say it works great even though they are keyboard fans.

I'll experiment and see as we have all types in our organisation.

[Elimentals]

BB fans who follow crackberry will know this. They claim to have made the touch screen keyboard very responsive and folks who have played on the dev device say it works great even though they are keyboard fans.

I'll experiment and see as we have all types in our organisation.

Erm how exactly can you do that? Its a touch screen, it responds to touch.

Hope they incorporate swype, as its the bomb.

[Frikkenator]

Erm how exactly can you do that? Its a touch screen, it responds to touch.

Hope they incorporate swype, as its the bomb.

Agreed...

Just another in a long line of examples of how the company has completely lost touch with what its customers want.

[Lino]

RIM you guys must be stupid! you actually deserve to go bankrupt bunch of idiots

[Kosmik]

Erm how exactly can you do that? Its a touch screen, it responds to touch.

Hope they incorporate swype, as its the bomb.

Of course it responds to touch but it also depends how well the screen determines the touch above it's virtual keyboard.

[Vulk]

Well, you may prefer physical keyboards (and for what it's worth, I like them too), but I think the general consensus on this thread is completely wrong: RIM's real problem is that they didn't do this sooner.

One of the big trends in smartphone design over the past four years has been the switch from physical keyboards to touchscreens. The iPhone is the obvious data point here, but it's worth noting that most Android phones also used to have physical keyboards (eg the G1 and original Motorola Droid), but since then have almost completely switched to pure touchscreens. The market has spoken - most people prefer touchscreens, and are not willing to compromise on screen size (as is the case with the classic Blackberry form factor) or size and built quality (as is the case with landscape sliders like the Droid).

In short: this is a good move by RIM, but it's way too late. If they'd figured this out three years ago, they might have been able to turn the company around. However, their conservatism and enterprise focus left them unable to respond to changing trends in the smartphone industry.

[hj2k_x]

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-...creens-1084285

Check it out.

[Elimentals]

Well, you may prefer physical keyboards (and for what it's worth, I like them too), but I think the general consensus on this thread is completely wrong: RIM's real problem is that they didn't do this sooner.

One of the big trends in smartphone design over the past four years has been the switch from physical keyboards to touchscreens. The iPhone is the obvious data point here, but it's worth noting that most Android phones also used to have physical keyboards (eg the G1 and original Motorola Droid), but since then have almost completely switched to pure touchscreens. The market has spoken - most people prefer touchscreens, and are not willing to compromise on screen size (as is the case with the classic Blackberry form factor) or size and built quality (as is the case with landscape sliders like the Droid).

In short: this is a good move by RIM, but it's way too late. If they'd figured this out three years ago, they might have been able to turn the company around. However, their conservatism and enterprise focus left them unable to respond to changing trends in the smartphone industry.

No RIM's real problem is developers. I tried to dev on it when they had that free tablet thing going. (Get a free Playbook if you submit any app)

After about 6 hours I decided stuff that, they can shove the tablet.

[ryan411]

If they roll out BBM to other non BB devices, I'd pay a small subscription for that, but otherwise I reckon I am done with Blackberry as I am going Android. Might pay for prepaid BIS for a couple of months on my BB9700 and soon to be secondary phone, while I wean myself off BBM

[Kosmik]

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-...creens-1084285

Check it out.

Thats very cool tech and will revolutionise touch screens I think but it's not in use yet.

[MandM]

No RIM's real problem is developers. I tried to dev on it when they had that free tablet thing going. (Get a free Playbook if you submit any app)

After about 6 hours I decided stuff that, they can shove the tablet.

Blackberry has been working closely with developers and it seems that developers are loving Blackberry 10. Not sure if you know that the Blackberry 10 Jam World Tour is coming to Cape Town on the 31st of July. Developers can apply for a BB10 alpha device. More information here: http://www.blackberryjamworldtour.com/cape-town