ON THE CONVENIENCES OF BLACKBERRY KEYBOARDS

EVOLUTION

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal likes the newest version of the ultra-PC (aka UMPC), called the Q1 Ultra,  from Samsung. 

But that's not what this post is about.

What it is about, is this negative comment by Walt, on the Q1's Blackberry-style mini-keyboard:

"Unfortunately, Samsung and Microsoft didn't build any intelligence into this keyboard, so it doesn't automatically complete words, add punctuation and capitalize the first letters of sentences, unlike the keyboards on most smart phones."

To which, my first reaction was, "Why not?"

Blackberry's maker, RIMM, (Research in Motion), introduced this feature in the first Blackberrys back in 1999.  Since then, there are over 8 million folks who've become adopters, and subscribers of the device's services.

And let's face it.  When it comes to email on the go, Blackberry has defined the user-interface for mini-chic-let style keyboards.  And what the magical convenience that keyboard provides via software, in terms of typing words and sentences.

Remember that the first major Graphical User-interface innovations in desktop computing at Xerox Parc, like folders on a desktop and a mouse, were quickly adapted, and improved upon by Apple and Microsoft, almost three decades ago. 

They've given us the rich world of graphical user interfaces that we use almost universally on desktops and laptops.

In much the same way, Blackberry, for better or for worse, has defined how teeny QWERTY keyboards should work on hand-helds and cellphones.

And they should be adopted, adapted, and improved upon by other vendors.

With obvious deference of course to any patents, copyrights and other intellectual property owned and enforced by RIMM.

 

Comments

[jordan]

FYI - You can get free access to those WSJ.com articles through http://www.congoo.com

That was in PC World and I thought it was an excellent tip.