We’re less than a week away from the launch of the supposed next “iPhone killer,” the Palm Pre. The iPhone has miraculously survived a few of these attempts on its life before — it somehow weathered the BlackBerry Storm, and before that, the G1 was going to be the device the did it in. The G1 was compelling because it was the first phone to run Google’s Android operating system. But as a piece of hardware (made by HTC), it sucked. You know it, I know, even Google employees will admit it. And that’s why I was at first less than thrilled when I heard Google would be giving away Android phones to everyone at the Google I/O event a few days ago. But it turns out, they weren’t giving away G1s, but rather that device’s successor, which they call the “Google Ion,” though some know it better as the HTC Magic, or even as the “G2.” And it was a brilliant move by Google, because this device is leaps and bounds better than the G1.
Mostly setting aside the software itself — the Ion runs the new “Cupcake” variety of Android, aka Android 1.5 — the hardware that HTC has built this time around is much, much better. First of all, the thing just looks a lot nicer. It’s fairly sleek, almost iPhone-like, compared to the G1, which looked like a dull black plastic brick with a protruding chin at the bottom. The Ion is smaller, it’s thinner, the camera is nicer, the buttons are nicer, hell, even that stupid trackball that HTC insists on including is nicer. Most importantly though, it’s much more usable as a device. And we can thank one thing for that, as well as for much of its much improved design: The removal of the physical keyboard.
Now, before all your business and power users jump on me, let me say this: I understand how much you love your physical keyboards on your phones. I admit that most BlackBerry’s have quite nice keyboards. That said, the G1’s absolutely sucked and physical keyboards overall will become extinct over the course of the next several years. While the Ion’s vast improvement over the G1 may not solely prove that, it goes a lot way towards making the case that I’ve been making for a long time now: The physical keyboard is just a waste of valuable space.
With the G1, not only did the keyboard make the device much thicker than it needed to be otherwise, the overall implementation was poor. The device’s chin made for an uneven typing experience, and the fact that the device had to be held in horizontal mode to use the keyboard was just silly beyond belief. And it actually caused some programs to fail when you would close the keyboard with device in typing mode and move it back to vertical mode. With the on-screen keyboard built into Android 1.5, you can now type while the device is vertical. And if you want to type horizontally, you just turn your device and you can do that too. This alone makes the device much better.
The on-screen keyboard itself is better than they G1’s physical keyboard too. I find that I can type much faster with it, and not having to turn the device to the side, makes it easier to do things like type and walk. One major complaint against these virtual keyboards is that you can’t orient your hands without looking down as you’re typing, but improvements in technology such as haptic feedback will help this. Another is that the virtual keyboards often have lag between hitting a key and it showing up on screen — faster devices, like the Ion, will fix this. The physical keyboard is dead — it’s only a matter of time.
All that said, the Ion’s on-screen keyboard is not as good as the iPhone’s. The Ion’s slightly smaller screen means the buttons are slightly more crammed together, which makes mistypes more common. But other Android devices with larger screens will undoubtedly help this.
Beyond the keyboard and the overall design, the other single biggest improvement in the Ion is in battery life. The G1’s battery life was an absolute joke with applications running the background. The Ion’s battery life is quite good — we hear it’s as much as four times as powerful, though I haven’t tested that extensively — so good that I can have background applications such as IM, current weather and Twitter notifications running all day without the device dying on me. Running just two of those apps on the G1 would result in power drain in just a few hours.
But the big question everyone wants to know is: Is the Ion better than the iPhone? No, it’s not.
Even all that I said above doesn’t do justice for how much better the Ion is than that G1, but it’s simply still not on par with the iPhone. While obviously, a lot of that has to do with which software you favor, the iPhone’s OS versus Android, the iPhone hardware is still nicer as well. The screen is slightly bigger, the one-button layout (or 4 if you count the side and top buttons) is simpler, and the thing just feels more sturdy. That said, the Ion has a big advantage in its camera, which is much nicer than the current iPhone’s — but that should change with the new iPhone hardware due shortly.
But I think that it’s fine that the Ion isn’t an “iPhone killer.” First of all, the mobile space is still evolving and growing rapidly, the idea that any one phone is going to kill any other phone is kind of silly — people have different tastes/desires and the market is big enough for a huge number of these types of devices.
Second, the Ion is really a nice phone — it’s easily the second best phone I’ve used behind only the iPhone, and if you want to do something like run background applications, I’d definitely recommend it (at least until Apple gets into that game). And the Ion is a better device if you care deeply about using Gmail, Google Calendar and Gtalk, as those are all obviously Google products built right into Android.
Third, the Ion is just one more of many Android devices due shortly. Google is on record as saying there will be 18 Android phones just this year, but we hear it may even be more than that, north of 25. Google’s goal isn’t creating an “iPhone killer,” it’s creating a vibrant mobile ecosystem that it can use to get more people using Google’s services. Plenty of people use Google on the iPhone, and you can be sure that the company is quite pleased with that.
As a platform, Android needs better applications if it’s going to compete (compete, not kill) with the iPhone in the consumer space. But with so many devices coming, developers are sure to pick up their game as demand increases. A major setback in Android development since the launch of the G1 was that the G1 was a junky piece of hardware. Devices of a higher caliber, like the Ion, will help change everyone’s (both consumers’ and as a result, developers’) mind about moving to the Android platform.
See how easy that was HTC? All you had to do was kill that awful physical keyboard. Nice work.
It’s not smart at all!!! Now you can’t use Terminal Emulator and can’t enjoy the full power of Linux.
No worries Bill, ConnectBot has a patch, just dont use the one from market but download the latest on the site. http://code.goo...s/detail?id=112
“We’re less than a week away from the launch of the supposed next “iPhone killer,” …”
MG First of all stop calling pre as an iPhone killer.
They are two entirely different phones. one has physical keyboard other has a ‘wheel’ keyboard … in other words NO keyboard.
Compare apples with Apple and Oranges with Pre OK?
Hmm, you need to learn a bit about “Reading Comprehension.” I didn’t see MG claiming that Pre was an iPhone killer.
Dude, if you had just read a little further you’d have found this:
“But I think that it’s fine that the Ion isn’t an “iPhone killer.” First of all, the mobile space is still evolving and growing rapidly, the idea that any one phone is going to kill any other phone is kind of silly — people have different tastes/desires and the market is big enough for a huge number of these types of devices.”
Just saying.
MG = Mostly Google
I’m bored.
No keyboard = suck. I hate typing on my iphone. Auto-suggest and keyboard, that’s two areas my free Motorola Q totally kicked my phones ass.
ya seriously we need a keyboard
Yeah, well, I love G1’s keyboard and in most applications the trackball is way more comfortable to use than the touchscreen …
Agreed, I won’t buy a phone without a physical keyboard, I don’t care how cool it’s haptic feedback or how little the lag is reduced, we are a LONG way off from having a mobile market devoid of physical keyboards.
On a different, this article couldn’t have been more boring or a waste of my time but I thank MG for making it a point I can ignore his future articles and save more of my valuable time. Techcrunch is quickly becoming less and less relevant and off the cuff with the article quality.
iPhone fanboys call it a smart move, because then iPhone has one less competitive advantage. In fact, I didn’t wait for G2 on purpose, because I knew it lacked a physical keyboard. Now, with Cupcake, I can tell you the on-screen keyboard is a joke compared to G1’s keyboard, which I love. So, the fact that G2 lacks keyboard doesn’t mean that HTC will stop producing models with keyboards and they will be a thing from the past. On the contrary, more phones now have slideout keyboards – you can’t compare a joke with the real thing.
The iPhone’s virtual keyboard is really excellent, i can type faster with it than with a blackberry’s physical tiny keyboard.
Plus, I can write an email in correct french with the iPhone. On a blackberry, the accents are difficult to find and to access. It might be OK for english, but most of the european languages make use of accents. Of course you can type without accents and be understood, but it makes you look like a poorly educated person.
Yeah this is totally one of those areas fair weather bloggers will totally slam, and later when iphone is down on its luck will do a 180 and slam it for not having a physical keyboard.
Agreed. I like the g1 keyboard as well. I can use my phone as a keyboard & mouse combo for my htpc. The trackball is useful for scrolling. Kinda difficult to do on a phone that’s just 1 touchscreen.
I am a big fan of the slide out keyboard. It just needs to be done the right way. Can’t say any phone has hit that mark yet.
I hear the Pre’s sucks as well.
I don’t think the Pre’s will be that great because it’s still a vertical keyboard, which makes it a little cramped. I’m a bigger fan of the horizontal ones like the G1.
How about you get a real world job where you need to send business e-mails comprised of more than lol’s and smileys and then get back to us on the virtual vs. hardware keyboard issue?
EXACTLY.
Sorry but I do agree that the G! is not exactly the greatest SM BUT as a former Dash and Shadow owner I can say it is a ton better than both of those WM phones.
I think overall HTC phones suck with the exception of the G! and this belief that somehow the MAGIC is going to be soooo much better then the G1 is IMHO a lot of hot air.
ITS THE SAME CAMERA!
Memory hasn’t been improved by that much and still no 3.5 headphone jack!
HTC IMHO will be killed by the next Samsung Android phone. I believe its the 1700.
If I read it correctly 8 GIGS of onboard memory!
I might make the jump to the Samsung for better memory, A KICK ASS CAMERA, and may be willing to at that point give up the physical keyboard.
+1
I had an Audiovox phone that did a pretty decent job of it… Not very good (chiclet keys no bigger than 4mm x 4mm) but at least you could actually type with it. I’ve yet to see a better mobile phone keyboard since (and that includes screen keyboards).
Tim,
HTC Touch Pro 2 has one of the best keyboard layouts.
when will it have multi-touch? Still way behind Apple. Voice search is horrible. Doesn’t recognize what you are saying.
I don’t know about the Ion, but the G1 has hardware multi touch, but it’s disabled on the software side because of an Apple patent.
If do a bit of Google searching there are ways to enable multi touch.
It’s not really multi-touch, if you do the research.
It does actually. It’s disabled due to patent concerns but there are ways to jailbreak it.
The G1 has pseudo-multitouch in hardware. If you have two fingers down, it has a 50% chance of knowing where they are, because of the way it’s implemented. It knows which rows and which columns are being touched. Like I said, do the research.
I didn’t think Apple had a patent for multi-touch. Do you have a reference?
One of the great advantages of the iPhone (that nobody ever seems to mention) is that the virtual keyboard is self-correcting. In other words, it does an excellent job of knowing what word you’re trying to type — even if you didn’t hit any of the keys properly. Most people don’t know this, but the iPhone even enlarges the virtual landing area of the letters necessary to finish a word once it knows what you’re trying to spell. Pretty snazzy.
Does anyone know if the Ion has any advanced self-correction features, like the iPhone? Because a virtual keyboard is kind of useless if it can’t self-correct on the fly…
Wow, that’s amazing? Is that an Apple invention? Because my Nokia phone did that 8 years ago.
While I agree, why so cranky today?
The iphone’s auto-correction is the one feature which I have seen several users to switch off as soon as possible. Considering that it gladly suggested to me words like meetxnmph, I do not wonder why.
meetxnmph? That’s Klingonese for “fanboi.” Doesn’t everybody know that?
Yes, with the cupcake update it has auto correction. You can turn off/on 3 options: quick fixes, show suggestions, auto-complete.
Quick fixes just fixes commonly misspelled words. Suggestions show a bar of suggested words you can choose from to autocomplete. I turn auto complete off cuz i don’t like it auto replacing words I type. So if you wanted to type some profanity there are no restrictions.
“physical keyboards overall will become extinct over the course of the next several years.”
Are you trolling for comments? How about you get a real job where you need to send business e-mails comprised of more than lol’s and smiley and then judge if a phyisical or a virtual keyboard is more productive?
Sorry about the double post — the comment system is a bit slow today.
Tom,
I use my iPhone daily to send business e-mails which are paragraphs long sometimes and do so without hassle or stress. It is a preference thing and for you to go out on a limb and be as cocky and rude as you were was outrageous.
I do agree, however, that the comment about physical keyboards being extinct was a little over the top. That is like saying computer makers will dump physical keyboards for the laser-projected keyboards or on-screen keyboards. It is highly impractical.
The fact is this: as of now touch-screen keyboards are a growing trend and will continue to be as companies compete for the next top-of-the-line phone. Physical keyboards are still being put on phones to this day and they will never just drop off the face of the Earth. If they — for some out-of-this-world reason — do, then many people will be up in arms about it because they prefer them over the touch.
Tom, I hope next time you begin to make comments like this one you think twice and watch what you say because quite frankly, you seem like nothing but an arrogant jackass.
Best,
Ryan
I have to agree with Tom regarding the physical keyboard and typing.
I type 40 WMM on a physical keyboard and that goes WAY DOWN on a touchscreen.
I couldn’t imagine sending long emails but the IPhone fanboys IMHO love to defend their virtual keyboards to the death.
Ryan,
You arm ritht. nd I agrew with yor stratgy of encouraginkg bttr behavyr by caling Tom a jakcsss.
Bust,
Paul
– Sent from my iPhone
The MG Clown will tell you that all businesses will soon twit rather than send email and that email is for grannies.
This move is far from smart: I and many people I know choose G1/Blackberry for a simple reason: a physical keyboard does not cover half of the available screen area when editing a document/email. I am typing this on G1 which has both virtual and physical keyboards and guess which one I am using for writing this comment?
Quite frankly I don’t think the average business user is using an IPhone.
Of course, not. But if you just saw the world throught MG’s eyes, all everybody does all day longs is tweeting on their iPhones…
It’s still hideous and no way is it a qwerty killer. I had an HTC Diamond Touch and got rid of it after 6 month, i couldn’t get rid of it fast enough.
hoohoo, mate, same here…i got rid of it after 3 months…it couldn’t be a more terrible crap in all the handsets i have used…
MG-
One thing I wish you would have mentioned in this post is that the Google Ion is still lacking a 3.5mm jack.
I am currently using a G1, but I plan on switching back to an iPhone soon for that very reason. I enjoy Android, and I even kind-of like the physical keyboard that makes the G1 so awkward… but dealing with a Headset Adapter… It’s the biggest turn-off in cell phone history.
You guys just did a pretty neat post about Headset Adapters in MobileCrunch. Greg even went as far as to say that Crunch phone ratings would (from now on) thoroughly point out the absence of a 3.5mm jack in new phones, and how much it makes them “Suck”.
I totally agree with Greg on this one.. I wonder if you feel the same.
True enough since Greg went there, I didn’t go there. Here’s his article for those that didn’t see it.
http://www.mobi...ur-phone-sucks/
I love my G1 because there is more to hold on to then the Iphone.
That makes it a breeze when taking a picture or typing an email.
The games and apps on the Iphone are better though but the G1 market place is sure catching up!
I have my keyboard open an inordinate amount of time on my G1 and love it.
The G1 isn’t perfect hardware, but then again you can’t show me a perfect smart device because: IT DOESN’T EXIST.
HTC has some pretty good ideas about mobile devices and are doing some pretty cutting edge stuff, but some of their ideas leave one in puzzlement…like the whole adapter issue on th G1 (and other devices of theirs).
I think that HTC and Android could be a pretty fine pairing…esp. when the REAL G2 comes out (you know the one thats a real predecessor…with a physical keyboard.)
You’re wrong about the G1 keyboard (and the trackball), but that’s OK. The nice thing about Android is that we can have multiple competing physical designs that interoperate in software.
Well I know plenty of other Googler’s who agree with me, so it’s okay if you’re not on my side Kevin
Yeah Kevin he knows plenty of other Googler’s who agree with him!
He’s cool like that, your opinion is worthless.
Yet another well balanced review. I could hardly detect any bias at all.
"The on-screen keyboard itself is better than they G1âs physical keyboard too." Better for what? Certainly not typing.
The author doesn’t seem aware of the fact that Android 1.5 is running on the G1 now.
I’m aware of that. I have one. What of it?
The author comes off as a bit stupid
First of all, thank you very much about making me feel bad for owning a G1.
Actually, I don’t feel bad. I love the thing. I bought *because* it has a physical keyboard.
When I first tried out an iPhone demo, I was terrible at using the keyboard. Terrible. I am better now, but my first ten minutes of typing on an iPhone was a disaster. I am sure you had a better experience, but I didn’t. My fingers are thin and nimble, but I just couldn’t type on the iPhone.
Yet, when I got my G1, it took absolutely no training for my thumbs to correctly land on the real, plastic keys. I made the occasional typo because getting my hand on the right position on the “Leno-chin” of the phone was initially a minor struggle. However, I needed no practice to type out emails, text messages, and so forth on the G1.
MG, in the post, you said yourself, “people have different tastes/desires and the market is big enough for a huge number of these types of devices.”
My desire *is* a physical keyboard, along with an on-screen keyboard. My G1 runs on Android 1.5; I get the virtual keyboard too. If I need to type, “brb,” I can do so without flipping out the physical keyboard and typing with two hands.
The iPhone will not die in a short span of time, and neither will the physical keyboard. Yes, HTC made an Android phone without the keyboard, but that obviously is to cater to types that don’t feel the need for it.
Same here. I got the free G2 from Google I/O.
Well, I’m not giving up my G1. – not for a G2 and not even for the next gen of IPhone. The physical keyboard is the best feature of the phone.
What disappoints me is that MG’s strong opinion against the G1 getting published on an influential blog like TC. MG is just absolutely blinded by this that he keeps on harping that a physical keyboard is just useless. Non-G1 owners would think that the G1 is junk as MG perceives it to be,
It’s almost impossible to have a physical keyboard on a thin and light phone. G1’s keyboard is not perfect but the solution is a better physical keyboard and not getting rid of it.
Very true.
The G1 has problems, like every other smart and not-smart phone on the market, but it isn’t as bad as MG makes it seem.
with physical keyboard, i can type in IM applications without looking at it. does the on-screen soft keyboard allow me to do that? NO!
and btw, G1 is much better than MAGIC, based on my experience…when talking about the battery life, we all know HTC sucks at that…well i accepted it.
I find it a bit unbelievable that the person who wrote this article and most likely touch typed it on a physical keyboard thinks that on phones the keyboard will go away.
I am part of a huge group of people who will not buy a touchphone until it has a physical keyboard.
You are completely wrong when you say the future is of touch keyboards… the touch screens are OLD technology that never worked for a reason – you can’t touch type and never will be able to touch type without looking at them.
I’m looking forward to the Pre’s attempt at this and I’ll buy one over my blackberry if it’s at all good. I want a multi-touch screen but I insist on a real keyboard.
They are selling for $800+ on ebay right now.
I never took mine out of the box. I am very tempted to get rid of it. I already have a G1 and an iPhone.
If anybody here is willing to trade, I would take an HP DL380 G5 with 4GB+ RAM, 3Ghz+ dual xeons or above and loaded HDDs for my unopened Google ION plus my official Google IO T-Mobile SIM card, unused.
I don’t think I would trade for any less than a DL380 G5. We still need one for our NY cluster.
Thanks anybody that wants to trade. Even if I sold it on Ebay I wouldn’t have enough to buy said server, but perhaps somebody has one that they want to get rid of in Texas or something. They seem to be a god damned clearing house for corporate servers off lease.
http://picasawe...ForMyGoogleION#
There is a visual. I did not remove the phone from the cardboard cradle in the packaging. I did not use the card at all. It is still brand new.
If you have a Proliant G5 hanging around your company that you can shove in a box and ship to me, I will trade. soeet.com@gmail.com
This email address will no longer be checked in 1 month. First come first serve.
Bring it on, this is great! I feel like the mobile phone universe is finally gaining momentum; competition and all the bitching, moaning, praising, etc… is healthy and good for all of us.
With the G2 (and other versions), New iPhone, and Pre due out over the coming months, imagine where we’ll be by the end of the year as far as what’s available for the consumer.
Exciting times, indeed.
I think it’s great that Sprint gets the Pre 6 months before the rest do – then the bugs will be worked out and we’ll know if they are any good.
I’ve got to chime in with the chorus of physical keyboard fans. I’ve tried the iPhone’s virtual keyboard many times, and I find it atrociously difficult to use. Not all of us have small fingers, you know.
Unless touchscreens improve considerably, I think that the physical keyboard will be around for many years to come. Until our direct neuronal implants, of course.
Just as I was forced to accept the annoyingly tiny microSD card, I will be just as pissed if I have to accept a virtual keyboard.
As one of the very few blue collar workers that reads and comments on TC, let me say that the virtual keyboard is something many of my co-workers will want for a VERY long time. Everyone at work I talk to also has a passionate hatred for the horizontal keyboard.
We also want bigger phones though, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon either.
From the looks of it, I would like the G1 more than the G2.
G2 = fail, but not for any of the reasons MG pointed out. Most of the time I agree with you MG, but you are as far off as one could get with this one.
There are just so many things which I disagree with in this article. First off, to conclude that physical keyboards on phones will be extinct is the equivalent of saying that there should be only one type of car out there. The use of keyboard frankly boils down to a matter of preference. I’m not sure if Google is positioning themselves to be an Iphone killer. Frankly, looking at HTC’s trend, they often release both the physical keyboard and non-physical keyboard versions of the the same phones. Look at The Touch Pro and Touch Diamond followed by the Touch Pro 2 and the Touch Diamond 2. For more details, I created a quick blog entry here – http://www.thek...preference.aspx
“As one of the very few blue collar workers that reads and comments on TC”
LOL, I work in a glorified cubicle.
At any rate, If it was that great, I would have removed it from the box. It’s not as good as the G1, and there isn’t even a button to take a picture.
My Google ION is far more pristine than the ones being sold on ebay for $900 because I have not removed it from the box at all. Why would somebody actually trade me a DL380 G5 loaded. BTW, I want a quad xeon for it now, not a dual xeon anymore. The dual xeon offer passed 10 minutes ago.
At any rate, the reason somebody would trade a loaded quad xeon DL380 G5 for my phone and not the G1 is because software manufacturers that create applications for the phone need one to develop with. Those that did not attend IO could lose thousands of dollars by not having a demo model to target their application with.
Those outside the US will be especially targeted.
My Google ION is special because I did not touch it and did not remove it from the box. The ones on ebay were used and handled. My Ion is worth at least a quad DL380. My offer is good for 2-3 days, then I am simply going to get rid of the phone locally.
Since Android doesn’t work with Outlook I wouldnt buy an Android phone ever.
Only readers from Texas could have taken me up on the offer, and there aren’t enough here.
Only Texans run big iron and could have whipped a G5 in a box for me.
I find that if I put an offer up on TC, if it doesn’t get taken within 1 hour, it usually doesn’t get taken at all.
http://cgi.ebay...em=110396903141
Here’s the phone on ebay, 1 day auction. It won’t buy us an HP DL380 G5, but it will give us a nice discount. Actually it could buy another MSA20 and a DL380 G3, I think I will do that instead. We need the extra cash.
G1 keyboard is pretty good. This article is laaaaame.
Yup.
IMHO the HTC Magic is just not a big leap from the G1 and infact most of the articles I have read suggest that its not worth upgrading from the G1 to the Magic.
Oh yes and I also love my G1 BUT HATE HTC PHONES!
about time… after all the iphone is around the block for more then 2 years now, no?
This article is horrible. Take any hype phone and stack it against the Sidekick and not only will you see a physical keyboard done right but in terms of functionality it will blow away any current virtual keyboard. You can remove a few exterior buttons from a device and depend on touch feedback but throw a full QWERTY on a touch screen and you just cooked up a can of fail.
Keyboards are not a waste of space if your a person that is looking to save time and multitask or like to keep things in your pocket.
I some times do not look at my phone when I type whereas if its a touchscreen I have to there is nothing there to tell me that I have pressed the wrong button; a device with physical buttons can be in my pocket while im using it I don’t have to be looking straight at it.
With a touchscreen you have to look at the device to know what your pressing usually and that is a waste of time when you could be doing something else.
I agree and that’s the point. A keyboard is where phones are going – not the other way around.
“A keyboard is where phones are going” ? That statement simply does not make a lot of sense. If anything, entirely voice-controlled voice communication is where phones are going, it’s not like in 2050 we’re going to be using keyboards for phones. There’s a reason that both Android and BlackBerry have invested time and money into making virtual keyboards even though both started with physical ones. And there’s a reason Apple doesn’t bother with one.
I agree that voice will replace the keyboard – but voice applications are so far away that we will need the keyboard for years to come. As far as why apple didn’t bother with one? Because the IPhone is a toy – people who do serious email and scheduling use a blackberry.
Why will voice replace the keyboard? Do you really want to be sitting on a bus speaking an email into your phone so everyone can hear, rather than typing it quietly on a nice keyboard? I love my G1, and the keyboard is a major factor — typing is incredibly easy with a real keyboard.
Now if you had of said “the keyboard will be replaced by tiny robots that can read your brain so you can just think to your computer and have it know,” then yes, I would have agreed with you. But that future is far off, and for now, the physical keyboard is best thing on the horizon.
I agree with Kevin H. Voice will not replace all operations of the phone. The keyboard is still needed. If every phone had only voice operations, it’d be pretty difficult for microphones to isolate through the amount of noise. Outside of privacy reasons, it’s actually not that natural to do long input with voice. I can only imagine writing emails with voice. I, for one, use backspace a lot and changing my mind. It’d be pretty uncomfortable and not all that efficient to do so. So, yes – tiny robot sin your head is the way to go
Wow, MG you got some mad writing skills but your ideas are crap. I’m not sure what your background is but it definitely doesn’t look like it’s in consumer electronics.
I don’t think you really believe virtual keyboards are the future. It must be for shock value only. The idea is just too ridiculous.
Why do Macs still use physical keyboards if it’s so inferior to virtual ones?
If I were stupid enough to bet if I lived long enough, I’d take any wager that keyboards will be around in 2050 unless there is a new technology like using direct thought for controlling the devices. Just imagine if everybody had to talk outloud all the time to do anything. That won’t happen because in a lot (most) of situations, it’s simply unacceptable behavior.
Will we see more voice options in the future? Probably. But there still a lot of good reasons to have keyboards, e.g. typing a message in private and not dictate it in a public way.
I think in the future we will have the best of both worlds, a virtual but tactile keyboard. I could envision magnetic nano particles (buzzword alert) which are beneath the display.
These particles could be clustered to form desigered shapes that are visible on the screen, in our example buttons of a virtual keyboard or basically any other UI element on the screen. So when your finger is touching the display it will feel a bump and you can press down on it, giving you a similar feeling like of an physical keyboard.
Voice control? ROFLMAO. That’s definitely what people want.
“honey dont forget to pick up the zit cream from giant on the way home. send email.”
“please move 100,000 USD from bank acct 1 to acct 2. password code 981402XD. confirm transfer”
Yeah DEFINITELY want they want.
Also you forgot to mention those that don’t like to have iTunes on their computer, and have apps that have to deal with Apple’s approval process
If I may amend your post MG. Blackberry still produces physical QWERTY keyboards and so does HTC. What is correct is that Google is moving away from phones with keypads. Here’s the latest HTC/Android “Hero” video here http://bit.ly/a5vJ3
Google has a business incentive not to integrate with Microsoft products like outlook. It’s a bad decision since Outlook is so dominant. No one will buy an Android phone if they rely on outlook just like many don’t buy the IPhone without a keyboard.
Are we talking integrating with Outlook or with Exchange? Rogers Communication in Canada is supposedly releasing a G1 phone with the ability to sychronize with Exchange. I am surprised with the comment of Google not wanting to integrate to products like Outlook. I believe that they previously released the ability to synchronize Appointments and Contacts with ActiveSync. It benefits them for people to put their information in the Google infrastructure. I pesonally believe that Android is the means and not the end.
I know this post is opinion, but damn, stop writing about the G1 like its a Chinese-knock off and like your opinion is God speaking.
It’s not written in stone that the G1’s keyboard is awful… there isn’t even a consensus.
Also, MG (wtf is your real name btw?) you arn’t a real G1 user. Your an iPhone user who got a hold of a G1. STFU.
Just one “philosophical” comment: is the physical keyboard going to be extinct as the virtual one evolves towards its functionalities, or should we imagine a virtual keyboard’s failure of dominance due to the physical one’s evolution thanks to e-ink and stuffs?
MG, I have to disagree with your assessment on the virtual keyboard. You correctly predicted that you would get a lot of flack from business types and power users.
I have a G1 and the main reason I don’t get an iPhone is because of it’s ridiculous virtual keyboard that even my iPhone friends admit is still a bit hard to use.
The G2 is a much better piece of hardware than the G1, but I the virtual keyboard (in the vertical position) is still no match for the physical keyboard. It is virtually impossible to use b/c the G1 screen is so small.
I do agree that the chin on the G1 is a terrible design and gets in the way of using the keyboard, but I would add that it doesn’t take time to get used to it (while despite trying, I can never get used to the virtual keyboard on the G1)
Man, the pedants are out.
I can see physical keyboards disappearing ON PHONES as the tech gets better. My better half just discovered two-thumb typing on her iPhone (after over 18 months of owning two iPhones) and claims her typing speed is much faster than the one fingered hunt and peck. But it took two weeks on a BOLD for her to figure that out.
The G1 hardware was fugly, the keyboard gears too visible – it was a dev model. The Magic/ION/G2 is really nice. They’ve been available on a reasonable contract here in the UK for a number of weeks and it’s the first time I’ve wanted a phone that wasn’t an iPhone. Of course I’m going to wait til after the new iPhone comes out (and then look at the G2, the Pre and iPhone3). TBH, if Apple adds zoom to the iPhone camera, then the G2 is beaten.
I think it’s all very exciting – after years of the doldrums with crap phones from RIM, NOKIA and SonyEricsson, we’re getting some real joy with kick-ass phones it’s hard to choose between.
Consumer FTW!
HTC lost its touch. Used to be good but not anymore. I had to get a replacement for the Verizon XV6800 (made by HTC) phone when less than six month after buying it new the “O” letter on its slide-out keyboard would stop working. Also, the plastic tip of the stylus came out as well. I thing HTC no longer concentrates on quality but on cranking out inferior new phones every 6 months.
Is that true that HTC used to be Audiovox?
Is this normal grammatical level of writing on TechCrunch? Please read your work before posting.
As you mentioned in the article, this virtual keyboard is only viable now because the cell phone processor is faster. That means a virtual keyboard in the G1 would not have worked well.
How does tactile feedback help a person find the keys without looking at the screen? This something you point out would be helpful in using a virtual keyboard, yet this does not provide this response. Therefore, this virtual keyboard is still lacking.
Currently, tactile feedback means the phone vibrates. The desired feel that people want is a little nub on the J and F keys. This is not something that is not easy to implement on any glass screen.
You are right suggesting that the solution would include notification of the actual key pressed, but having a tactile feedback would mean that it would be possible to reduce the clickable surface for each key and by that to let you know ’statistically’ that you have pressed on the right key.
Moreover, using the G2 I must say that part of the problem is the blank spots between the keys. It sometimes takes more than one press to actually click a button.
the G1 has a virtual keyboard since the cupcake update and I still don’t use it. I much prefer the slide out keyboard and don’t find it uncomfortable at all. Its actually the reason that I bought the phone. My iphone was junk. A toy. Full of bugs that never “just worked.” The only complaint I have about the G1 is that we don’t yet have the ability to change the duration of the backlight on the keyboard.
Nice device (this black version is very cute), available here for a couple of months.
My test here http://www.pres...sentation-video
Good article MG. I do believe the physical keyboard will be around a while for the generation that can’t make the transition to new design, but it will eventually die. Once you adapt to the virtual keyboard, you start to see the waste of having a physical keyboard.
Forgot to mention, there are clear screen overlays (with little bumps) for those who need the tactile touch on a virtual keyboard. I’m sure the overlay products will help those addicted to physical keyboards make the transition.
Nice move by Google. And nice phones
.
I can’t stand touch screen keyboards. They should have kept them the way they were.
But does this phone offer a T9 keyboard? I still can’t believe the iPhone doesn’t. Qwerty was meant to be cumbersome, so why not move to T9?
First, T9 is not the original cumbersome solution for QWERTY. That would be Sholes.
Second, actually QWERTY was invented in order to place common consecutive characters as far as possible from each other. This what probably makes it better when using a mobile device on landscape where it is most convenient to type with the thumbs.
Third, unlike ‘regular’ cellular devices, it does not contain a keypad (see the whole article above) which makes it less comfortable to type with out looking. So T9 does not solve anything.
T9 was a nice solution for the older cellular days.
I am a proud G1 owner, and I love cupcake. I will not comment on your weird hate for a physical keyboard, because honestly, I cannot say anymore than what was said.
I will just comment on the tone; the typical lame iPhone loving tone. Don’t you think it is funny that you will call the track ball ridiculous (when it is awesome) and the keyboard a disaster, and when it comes to oh-so-important, applications running in the background, that is oh-so-missing in the iphone, you shyly say: we will wait until Apple gets into that. It is as if you are afraid that the Apple God’s will be upset with you if you name something they didn’t put in as a ridiculous omission. Hats down to Apple for this inexplicable domination of its followers, really, chapeaux!
I really like iphones (I seriously think that overall they are the best), and I also will agree with you that no phone is going to kill the other. But I beg of you, please be fair either in gentility or cruelty; either say Apple is ‘Ridiculous’ for not having background applications, MMS, SMS forward, sms reports, generic USB support, replaceable batteries,….. or maybe say, Android’s G1 was a proof of concept and better hardware is coming out soon..
Be fair,
T
Believe it or not, I can type on my iPhone pretty well without looking at the screen.
Poor article, poor arguments.
“The physical keyboard is just a waste of valuable space.”
Wrong. The on-screen keyboard is a waste of valuable screen space.
Hardware keyboards take up zero screen real estate. Take a look at the HTC Touch Pro 2 and tell me that it’s not the best implementation of a hardware keyboard, and an on-screen keyboard killer. Because honestly, it is. Watch at 5 mins 45 secs:
http://www.yout...h?v=mXueoDGn6Zw
On-screen keyboards can be useful, but they aren’t total replacements for hardware keyboards and probably never will be – unless they’re sitting on their own slide/fold/flip-out display. Eating into the main display area = the suck!
I believe that MG Siegler will never be good at selling his story if he’s quoting himself. In this instance, he’s linking to three articles to support his somewhat controversive opinion and all three are authored by him.
BTW, physical keyboards will be probably phased out over time but I don’t think they will be displaced by virtual keyboards. Haptic feedback is a bad replacement for missing keys/bumps on a flat screen. Voice control is the future, but usable one is still sci-fi at this point in time, especially with mobile being used in potentially loud environments.
I’d love to know why you keep deleting my comments (2 so far).
Anyway, I realize this is an opinion piece article and contrary to what they told you in elementary school — opinions *can* be wrong.
I think you are a waste of space iphone fanboy, go play with you one button toy and get a job with apple already. keyboards are here to stay, cant say the same for your wack reviews
It’s amazing how the first-gen iPhone from 2 years ago still outclasses and outperforms pretty much any phone out there, even the Pre, IMO.
TechCrunch why semi-quote ‘iPhone Killer’ for this and every other phone that dares offer an alternative to your beloved fanboys iphone? You guys mention ‘iPhone Killer’ in every article that relates to non-iphone smart phones, then you semi-quote it as if the company (in this case HTC) has released a press release titled – “seriously, this is our iPhone killer”. Stop propagating this everyone knocking off the iPhone myth – the non-smart phone market is considerably larger than the smart phone market, and definitely many times larger than the iPhone marketshare. So, last I checked iPhone didn’t yet own the market. Knock off the shoddy writing and have faith in the quality of the article.