Rumor: Apple testing iPhone prototypes with physical keyboards
By Will Park on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 4:34 PM PST In Apple, Devices, Rumors, iPhone, iPhone OS
The iPhone’s conspicuous lack of a physical keyboard is at once a draw for those in-the-know and a deal-breaker for the virtual-QWERTY-wary. By nixing a physical keyboard from the iPhone’s design, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has been able to further their minimalistic design philosophy with the iPhone and iPhone 3G. But, clean lines and sleek style come at a price – namely the absence of a physical keyboard.
Despite much improved enterprise support in the iPhone 2.0 OS firmware that will be available as a free update for iPhone users and pre-installed on all iPhone 3G hardware, Apple is rumored to be testing prototypes for an iPhone with a physical, slide-out keyboard. The prototypes are said to have been seeded to unnamed wireless carrier executives for in-the-field feedback.
Steve Jobs previously criticized the need for physical keyboard on touchscreen handsets, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he and Apple won’t be going after another profitable niche with a keyboard-toting iPhone.
Physical-QWERTY lovers out there might do well to keep their hopes from flying too high for now, however, since Apple is known for throwing us for a loop with leaked misinformation.
If true, we could see yet another iPhone variant hit the market – iPhone Pro, anyone? Or, at the very least, support for Bluetooth keyboards…
[Via: MacRumors]
All right. That’s it – I can’t read this blog anymore. There are two pages of crap like this for every news- story. Goddamnit it’s irritating. Seriously, Will – if you wrote about strawberry sundaes, I would still get sick of it.