4 ms·

> If there was a market for it, people would be making them, if you disagree with that they what are you doing on here, your fortune awaits... This is incredib

> If there was a market for it, people would be making them, if you disagree with that they what are you doing on here, your fortune awaits... This is incredibly disingenuous because of the high barrier to entry on cellphone manufacturing.

raverbashing 13y ago
You can sell a pluggable device, no need to produce the whole phone
- DerpDerpDerp 13y ago
  A pluggable device doesn't offer the same experience as having a physically built-in keyboard.
  - raverbashing 13y ago
    You're right, it's better, since you don't have to sacrifice screen area for the keyboard There were Android phones with keyboards. I had the chance to play with a prototype in 2009 (yes, this was after the iPhone) Not good. Not good at all.
    - Crito 13y ago
      You don't have to sacrifice screen space for a physical keyboard... http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/DROID_3.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/DROID_3.j... That form factor is fine, although not popular with consumers. I had a Droid 2 for a while, and found myself using the soft-keyboard more and more, particularly while not using connectbot.
      - raverbashing 13y ago
        Yes, the prototype I tested was similar But the keys are too small for the fingers (IMHO). And it's a fragile item in the hardware.
        Crito 13y ago
        The problems I had with it were primarily related to build-quality I think. The 'i' key wore out after several months for example. I think these problems could likely be fixed by not skimping on the parts, but who knows.
      - DerpDerpDerp 13y ago
        I had one of the first generation Droids, and much preferred that form factor to any later smart phone I had, largely because of easy access to keys normally hidden behind layers of menu.
Tyrannosaurs 13y ago
It's an offhand line but the point stands - people who have the resources to overcome the barrier have tried and the phones don't sell in great numbers. Once they get used to a good soft key board like you get on the iPhone or most Android phones people either don't want (or don't feel they need I suspect) physical keyboards.
- DerpDerpDerp 13y ago
  That a large company can make enough money by focusing on one type of phone, thus not splitting their engineering efforts doesn't mean that there wouldn't be a viable niche market, if not for barrier to entry. I often hear people lament the design of their phone, caused by the preferences of the majority.
  - tomkarlo 13y ago
    It's hard enough to make a profit on popular phones, as evidenced by the woes of HTC, Blackberry and others... making a phone for a niche group, especially if you can't charge materially more (and I mean $1,000 or more, unlocked) just doesn't make any sense. Particularly when you consider that carrier and OEM marketing (large national campaigns, in-store placement, etc) doesn't scale down to small volume products. Making niche products doesn't work well for consumer electronics in general, unless you can sell that product at a much higher margin. Having a keyboard on a phone just doesn't seem to result in being able to sell it for twice as much. Another issue with keyboards is they don't internationalize well. So rather than having 1 hardware design worldwide, you now either need a TON of SKUs - one for each country (and you can't move inventory from one market to another) or you need to further limit your target market to just a few regions.
wmf 13y ago
Poor Motorizon can barely afford to make those Droids... wait, no.

raverbashing 13y ago

You can sell a pluggable device, no need to produce the whole phone

DerpDerpDerp 13y ago
A pluggable device doesn't offer the same experience as having a physically built-in keyboard.
- raverbashing 13y ago
  You're right, it's better, since you don't have to sacrifice screen area for the keyboard There were Android phones with keyboards. I had the chance to play with a prototype in 2009 (yes, this was after the iPhone) Not good. Not good at all.
  - Crito 13y ago
    You don't have to sacrifice screen space for a physical keyboard... http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/DROID_3.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/DROID_3.j... That form factor is fine, although not popular with consumers. I had a Droid 2 for a while, and found myself using the soft-keyboard more and more, particularly while not using connectbot.
    - raverbashing 13y ago
      Yes, the prototype I tested was similar But the keys are too small for the fingers (IMHO). And it's a fragile item in the hardware.
      - Crito 13y ago
        The problems I had with it were primarily related to build-quality I think. The 'i' key wore out after several months for example. I think these problems could likely be fixed by not skimping on the parts, but who knows.
    - DerpDerpDerp 13y ago
      I had one of the first generation Droids, and much preferred that form factor to any later smart phone I had, largely because of easy access to keys normally hidden behind layers of menu.

Tyrannosaurs 13y ago

It's an offhand line but the point stands - people who have the resources to overcome the barrier have tried and the phones don't sell in great numbers. Once they get used to a good soft key board like you get on the iPhone or most Android phones people either don't want (or don't feel they need I suspect) physical keyboards.

DerpDerpDerp 13y ago
That a large company can make enough money by focusing on one type of phone, thus not splitting their engineering efforts doesn't mean that there wouldn't be a viable niche market, if not for barrier to entry. I often hear people lament the design of their phone, caused by the preferences of the majority.
- tomkarlo 13y ago
  It's hard enough to make a profit on popular phones, as evidenced by the woes of HTC, Blackberry and others... making a phone for a niche group, especially if you can't charge materially more (and I mean $1,000 or more, unlocked) just doesn't make any sense. Particularly when you consider that carrier and OEM marketing (large national campaigns, in-store placement, etc) doesn't scale down to small volume products. Making niche products doesn't work well for consumer electronics in general, unless you can sell that product at a much higher margin. Having a keyboard on a phone just doesn't seem to result in being able to sell it for twice as much. Another issue with keyboards is they don't internationalize well. So rather than having 1 hardware design worldwide, you now either need a TON of SKUs - one for each country (and you can't move inventory from one market to another) or you need to further limit your target market to just a few regions.

wmf 13y ago

Poor Motorizon can barely afford to make those Droids... wait, no.