city02 63 Report post Posted September 8, 2004 NEW YORK: The smart phone market will grow more crowded Wednesday with the debut of two devices directed at opposite ends of the customer spectrum: a BlackBerry for consumers with a newfangled keyboard and a Nokia phone-organiser for mobile business professionals.Both handsets, designed to feel more like a cell phone than a handheld computer, will compete with about two dozen other smart phones that run on advanced operating systems such as Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm. Despite the growing selection, smart phones are expected to account for less than 3 per cent of all wireless handsets shipped in 2004, or about 17.6 million of an estimated 650 million, according to Kevin Burden, research manager for mobile devices at IDC. The number is expected to nearly double next year to about 30 million, or 4.3 per cent of an estimated 700 million shipments. Veering away from the traditional keyboard design that's proven so popular on its BlackBerry e-mail pagers and phones, Research In Motion Ltd. is aiming the new 7100t squarely at consumers rather than BlackBerry's loyal base of lawyers and other white collar professionals. Developed for T-Mobile, it's promised for October. The 7100t, priced aggressively at $199.99 after rebates from T-Mobile, still relies on the familiar layout of the alphabet on a ``QWERTY'' typewriter but places two letters on each key to slim the device. So, for example, letters ``Q'' and ``W'' share a key in the upper left-hand corner. But with 14 keys rather than the usual 26 to choose from, typing requires a leap of faith in SureType, the predictive software RIM has developed specifically for this device. Rather than worrying whether the device will choose the Q or the W after pressing that key, users are asked to plow ahead and trust that SureType will make the right spelling decisions. To do this, SureType draws upon both a database of 35,000 common words and all the spellings of names and addresses in the user's personal contact list. The software is also programmed with common strings of words and is designed to learn from the user; once an unrecognised word has been typed twice, it is added to the database. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chandramauli 0 Report post Posted September 24, 2004 Hi All, Any update on the QWERTY key pad... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sanay 0 Report post Posted September 24, 2004 It is a keypad having individual buttons for each English alphabet (as computer keyboard) in below format found on normal PC/Laptop upper line: qwerty yuiop middle line: asdfg ;lkjh bottom line: zxcvb nm,./ It is different from normal mobile keypads which have individual buttons for numbers, while 3/4 alphabets share each number button. Normally QWERTY keypads are suitable where messaging and email is major part of usage. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
