In case you haven’t seen it yet, the above concept image is the ‘iPhone Pro’ whipped up by the folks at Gizmodo in response to an ‘iPhone Elite’ concept image created by fellow blogger Mat Brady. The new device would have 60GB of storage, a front-facing 1MP camera for iChat PLUS a higher quality camera for regular shots. There would be a real 16:9 aspect ratio, video capability built-in… and perhaps the most notable feature of this concept… The slide-out keyboard.
Now, I can hear all of the Apple die-hards out there saying that an iPhone ‘slider’ will never happen… and honestly, I’m there with you. I have a hard time seeing how Apple could ‘go back’ to an actual physical keyboard after having set the scene for virtual touchscreen inputs. However… If you think about it from a different angle, maybe it’s not so bad?
Perhaps the biggest appeal the BlackBerry has over the iPhone in the business world is it’s physical, tactile keyboard. Most Berry users swear by it, and can’t stand the form or function of the virtual touchscreen text input found on the current iPhone 3G. What if Apple combined the best of both worlds, providing the same, slick touchscreen interface and OS with a new physical QWERTY keyboard in a slider form for the business folk to use? Don’t you think that type of device would take a bigger chunk of the business user market in comparison to the current iPhone 3G setup? I think it would. Perhaps Apple should/could even brand the new device as the ‘iPhone Business’ or something along those lines. For those that just have to have the Berry-ish keyboard to punch out those quick emails on the go.
Whether or not this actually becomes a reality is yet to be seen, but thankfully time will tell us the answer. It always does. I have a feeling that we will NOT see anything like this for some time, at least not until Apple can iron out production costs on such a unit until prices for the device would reach a reasonable point that business users (and others) would be able to swallow.
The concept is certainly something to think about. I wonder what is going on at Apple’s 1 Infinate Loop address in Cupertino… Where are those new iPhone plans Apple? Want to shoot them over this way!? 🙂