New Cell Phones Get Tiny Keyboards
Tiny keyboards are looking like the next big thing in cell phones. As cell phones increasingly become pocket-size mobile computers used for text messaging, e-mail and Web access, phone makers are rushing to add standard Qwerty keyboards to make those functions easier. On most phones today, users enter text by tapping the standard phone keypad - a cumbersome process for many.
Thursday, Motorola unveiled the latest attempt to meld a keyboard with a cell phone. Its A630 looks like a cell phone when closed but flips open into a miniature laptop mode. The keys are meant to be pressed with thumbs. It's expected to be available through Cingular by late summer.
That's just one approach to adding a keyboard big enough to accommodate adult thumbs and fingers. "If you can pack in a Qwerty keyboard and not radically change the form factor, you have some very good potential," says John Jackson, senior wireless analyst at Yankee Group.
Some other keyboard-phone combinations:
o Nokia 's 6810, out more than a year, looks like a standard cell phone. Flip it open, and a Qwerty keyboard meant for thumb-typing spreads out like two wings on either side of the screen.
In Finland in June, the company introduced a plastic Bluetooth keyboard that folds to fit in a shirt pocket. Unfold the keyboard, set your phone nearby, and you can touch-type.
o At a wireless tech show in Asia in June, Samsung unveiled a fist-size box that uses a laser to project a keyboard on any flat surface. The box has Bluetooth wireless technology that can send signals to a cell phone placed nearby. The box senses when you touch one of the projected keys, sending the keystroke to your phone.
More such phones are expected from just about every cell phone maker. Digital devices such as the BlackBerry and the Treo also merge keyboards and phone capabilities, but they tend to be bigger, pricier and meant for power users. The new trend, analysts say, is to add keyboards to more mass-market phones.
However, some question the demand for Qwerty keypads, named for the six letters at the top left of a typewriter keyboard. A survey by Strategy Analytics found that only 13% of cell phone users said they wanted one.
"The Qwerty keypad is a generational thing," says Seamus McAteer, managing partner at market research firm Zelos Group. He notes that today's teens have grown up sending text messages using phone keys.
Motorola disagrees, and in fact is aiming its A360 at the younger market. "If we make messaging easier, it's going to bring messaging to a whole new level," Vice President Joe
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