iPhone with physical keyboard?

[the1payday]

First off, PLEASE don't flame me for this. I've posted a few things on MacRumors before, and if you've read any of my previous posts then you know that I'm not one of those people posting things such as "my friend works at AT&T and said the 3G iPhone is going to have bla bla bla." I'm by no means saying that this is fact or anything, and I personally don't believe it myself...I'm more so posting it so that, if it's somehow possibly true, I can say "Hey, I guess it was right." That being said....here it is:

I have a friend who recently went to our local AT&T store to purchase an iPhone for his wife. He CLAIMS that the rep he was talking to showed him a flyer pamphlet or something like that for the new iPhones. He said that there will be two iPhones coming out....a 3G regular iphone, and a new one that's extremely cheap, that also has some kind of flip out physical keyboard, while still having a touch screen on top for all of the other functions, with the option to still use the touch keyboard instead. The reason I find this kind of weird is that, this friend DOES NOT follow Apple or iPhone rumor sites AT ALL, so I don't really know where he would have gotten this from. He also claimed that the new 3G iphone will come in 3 colors, and that the new phone would supposedly only be around $200. I dismissed everything he said, until I saw that report on MacRumors of their supposedly being a $200 iPhone along with the 3G iPhone.

Once again, I'm not saying that I even personally believe this...I'm just posting it for hell of it, if it turns out to be correct....and I personally hope that it's not. An iPhone with a physical keyboard would be lame on Apple's part, after all of the push towards touch technology.

 

[rayward]

I would suggest that this is nonsense as you suspect. Adding a flip down keypad would be an enormous admission to a huge flaw in the original design. As the original design has smashed the competition for sales amongst smartphones, saying that it was flawed makes no sense.

 

[ipodtouchy333]

Like you said, many people including me probably won't believe this but I just don't think Apple would do that to the iphone. I mean it's all about multi-touch right ??

 

[mbrizan]

iPhone with physical keyboard?

I doubt some AT&T rep knows anything.


That being said, I don't think a physical keypad would be so bad. Maybe if it were detachable or something.

 

[bacaramac]

I doubt some AT&T rep knows anything.


That being said, I don't think a physical keypad would be so bad. Maybe if it were detachable or something.

Mods, please ban this user...Just Kidding. Unless Apple did some kind of research that says in order for business user to adopt iPhone, they need Qwerty, I don't see Apple doing this.

IF, and believe that is a big IF, Apple does do this, it will be two models as was stated in the OP. One for business and one for consumer. Business model would have to be thicker of course.

 

[klymr]

Maybe he was talking about that Samsung phone that is supposed to be the iPhone killer, but still has a flip out QWERTY under the screen. I think it's at Sprint and Verizon right now.

Who knows?! I hardly doubt Apple would do such a thing though.

 

[Xjett]

I personally take anything an AT&T rep says or shows off with a large, golf ball sized grain of salt. Apple keeps a secret better than the CIA, I highly doubt that an AT&T rep would not only have information, but a flyer aswelll. Not to mention that the flyer, if true, would be all over the internet by now.

That being said I can believe your friend was shown something, maybe it was that Samsung iPhone killer. I could definitely see people confusing that for another version of the iPhone. Who knows...

 

[crees!]

I have a friend who recently went to our local AT&T store to purchase an iPhone for his wife. He CLAIMS that the rep he was talking to showed him a flyer pamphlet or something like that for the new iPhones. He said that there will be two iPhones coming out....a 3G regular iphone, and a new one that's extremely cheap, that also has some kind of flip out physical keyboard, while still having a touch screen on top for all of the other functions, with the option to still use the touch keyboard instead.

So the pamphlet showed him an iPhone, and then one similar, but not the iPhone... like the LG Voyager.

 

[extraextra]

So the pamphlet showed him an iPhone, and then one similar, but not the iPhone... like the LG Voyager.

Honestly, that's what I think too. It was probably just a pamphlet for the different phones AT&T sells.

No offense to anyone who works at AT&T but in my personal experience has led me to believe that the employees are not the brightest.

 

[earnjam]

Plus, why would an arbitrary AT&T employee get an early copy of a pamphlet for a phone that hasn't even been announced yet.

I think it's just likely your friend got confused with what the AT&T rep said (since you said he doesn't read the message boards like all of us ), or the salesman didn't know what he was talking about.

 

[JBaker122586]

Yeah...

 

[Mr. Giver '94]

No offense to the poster....but i think this is impossible. The all touch component of the iPhone sets it appart from other phones and makes it more user interactive. From my experience, most ATT salespeople seem to "get confused" about their information, so I think the sales rep wasn't being serious.

 

[the1payday]

Yea I agree with most of the things you guys are saying regarding the confusion. The thing that confuses me is that my friend was very specific saying the flyer had all three colors of the new 3G iphone displayed on it (red, silver, and black), and had the cheaper iPhone with physical keyboard on it too. I would say that he's just pulling my leg since he knows how obsessed I am with Apple, but he never frequents the rumor sites....it's all too close for him to just have pulled it out of thin air.

Once again though, I'm about 99% positive it's wrong, and I hope it's wrong.

 

[kdarling]

I would suggest that this is nonsense as you suspect. Adding a flip down keypad would be an enormous admission to a huge flaw in the original design.

No, it wouldn't.

There have been touchscreen based, keyboard based, and combined phones for many years.

The iPhone is not desired solely because of the touchscreen, which has been done before... it's desired because of the simple UI.

As the original design has smashed the competition for sales amongst smartphones, saying that it was flawed makes no sense.

The HTC Touch, with no advertising or fanbase, sold 3 million during the same time that the iPhone sold 5 million. And it has buttons in addition to touch.

In any case, let's say Apple added iPod player controls to one edge. Would you really claim this meant the original was a flawed design? I say no, because the touchscreen isn't really the big deal. The simple UI is.

 

[neven]

The idea that the iPhone is somehow a sacred design because it doesn't have hardware keys for say, iPod controls (and yet does have hardware for volume and ringer and home menu)... is frankly naive.

It's not what we think of this "sacred design" concept; it's what Steve & the bunch think. And they almost certainly think just that.

Perhaps this will be the second mouse button of Apple's mobile effort. If so, expect a physical keyboard some time around 2018. Or maybe it will be the floppy drive.

The HTC Touch, with no advertising or fanbase, sold 3 million during the same time that the iPhone sold 5 million

... mostly in markets where iPhone wasn't available. In those where it was, it didn't do so well. Not saying that proves iPhone is seen as obviously better on all counts by the market, but it's not exactly a great number-to-number comparison.

 

[alvintwj]

Like you said, many people including me probably won't believe this but I just don't think Apple would do that to the iphone. I mean it's all about multi-touch right ??

Some analyst predicted there's already 3 new iPhone design/model (whatever you call that ) being work out my Apple.

Top of that, the nano design would probably be available in Q4, during holiday season. Read that in my local newspaper some time ago.

- Flip/Clamshell Design
- Horizontal Slide (Probably like the AT&T tilt)
- Nano Version ( Scale down iPhone )

Yup, these are rumors but yeah who know, it might just be announce in near future?

 

[EPA1]

You mean this?

I have a post regarding this as well, It is a real prototype. This image below is of an artist render, but the device described to me was a little larger than the iPhone and had a clear glass screen that not only protected the screen, but flipped down to reveal more touchable buttons. Flamers Flame on, but it does exist.

EPA1

 

[earnjam]

I have a post regarding this as well, It is a real prototype. This image below is of an artist render, but the device described to me was a little larger than the iPhone and had a clear glass screen that not only protected the screen, but flipped down to reveal more touchable buttons. Flamers Flame on, but it does exist.

EPA1

It wasn't a prototype. It was an artist rendering of a patent application by Apple.

 

[citron230]

i am not really keen on the clam shell design.