Quote:
Originally Posted by tokuzumi
I'm not arguing keyboards have no purpose. But to say a phone without a keyboard is not a good choice, or that it won't sell is an incorrect statement. You mention you must see the entire screen when you are typing a long document. And you make a big deal out of the keyboard hiding the screen, allowing you to only see a few lines of text. There is an arrow, to minimize the keyboard, and show the screen in its entirety. When you are proof reading your document, you will need to click where you want to edit on both a touch screen only, or a touch screen with a keyboard, anyway. When touching the keyboard-less device, the keyboard will automatically pop up, and allow you to work. You would be performing the same operation with a full qwerty slide out. The only thing a software keyboard can't do that a hardware can is type without looking. If you gotta have that, no one can argue that point. But that's the only thing....
I almost bought a TP2, until I saw the price tag sprint wanted for that baby. I am all over the TP2 forum in the early, pre-release days, talking to the telus folks. So, you won't find me bad mouth the TP2 keyboard. But find people who have used a software keyboard on a capacitive screen for an extended time bad mouth their keyboards. About the only person who couldn't use an on screen keyboard would be some guy with Muhammad Ali thumbs. I know that dude had some big hands. And besides WM phones needed hardware keyboards, as you can't type for crap on a software only keyboard on a resistive screen. My fiancé's instinct is proof of that. The text messages I get from that phone are crazy. Also, don't sell yourself short, in that you couldn't learn how to use a touch screen keyboard. Auto correction is king.
I don't keep acting like HTC didn't want their phones to sell. I have been clear in that if the eris was given a better ad campaign, showing what the phone could do in a way that people could relate to, it would sell better than it does now. Period. End of story. I think I've said it numerous times in this thread. Please tell me how I haven't said that in almost every post I made in this thread.
My point with the Motorola financial woes was to your point about them being the big cheese in the wireless industry, using the Razr as your example. 3 years ago, yes. Then the industry changed, and Motorola didn't, and they lost 66% of their market share. They were in do or die mode. HTC has been slowly climbing up to the top in the wireless world, with Android paving the way for them. Which is why Apple has become sue-happy lately, with HTC being their target.
Also, you never answered how the Eris is slightly different than the Hero, despite people liking to call it a "re-badged hero".
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#1: The bottom line is with a hardware keyboard, the entire screen is my viewable text area. I can view text from several paragraphs ago without stopping what I am currently typing. I don't need to minimize a keyboard in order to view the text. It is much faster that way. My keyboard is out, and I can not only see what I am typing, but also what I have already typed. And I can do this without stopping what I am doing. I don't have to put my keyboard away in order to see what I have already typed.
#2: Like I said, I'm sure I could get by with an on screen keyboard if all I ever used it for was a short text message here and there or something like that. But if you are sitting in a 2 hour meeting/class/seminar and using your smartphone to take notes, you need the full screen viewing and you need to be able to type without looking. There is just no way you can maintain eye contact or pay attention to the presentation if your eyes are locked to your phone.
#3: Again, there is a reason why the Eris wasn't marketed the way you keep saying it should have been- that reason is Verizon. Verizon is the one who paid for most of that Droid marketing, not Motorola. And Verizon chose the Droid over the Eris to market like that because they knew it would sell better, and had features that couldn't be found on other devices. It's not like some HTC exec said, "You know, this device would be the best selling device ever if we marketed it, but I think we'll let it collect dust on shelves instead, because I really hate marketing..." Not hardly. HTC pitched the device to Verizon, and Verizon said something to the effect of, "We'll carry it, but we are not making it our flagship device, so you'll be on your own for marketing, for the most part..." While Verizon told Motorola something like, "We'll carry it, but we want an exclusive, and we'll make it our flagship device and pay for a major marketing campaign..."
#4: Again, your point about Motorola does not help your argument. They were in do or die mode, they swung a heavy bat, and they hit a home run. It just goes to show that you don't have to try to copy an iPhone in order to be successful. And I never claimed Motorola was the big cheese, I just said I wasn't sure if they were on the brink of failure, and pointed out the success of the RAZR- after you said they were on the brink of failure. It doesn't matter though, like I said at the time- we're talking about the Droid here, and there is absolutely no doubt that the Droid has been a huge success.
#5: As far as the diffence in specs, I actually posted the wrong link. There were differences there too though, here's the link again so you can see them yourself:
http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=pdacomp...=2080&id2=1966
But that was comparing the Droid Eris to the GSM Hero. Here is the Sprint Hero compared to the Droid Eris:
http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=pdacomp...=2080&id2=2005
They have different CPUs, different display color depths, different bluetooth, and obviously different shapes of the actual device.