Some Future BlackBerry Smartphones Will Include Keyboards

Reports, both official and unconfirmed, have seemed to indicate that BlackBerry-maker RIM next-generation smartphones will be all-touchscreen. However, the company says it is still committed to the physical keyboard.

RIM built its business on offering smartphones with physical keyboards and a focus on mobile email and messaging. Although once a very successful formula, the company is now struggling to compete with Android and the iPhone, and the best-selling handsets today are typically all-touchscreen.

Speculation that RIM is going to drop keyboards from its designs was touched off early this year, when CEO Mike Lazaridis said that upcoming smartphones from his company will resemble the PlayBook tablet. And the company has said that all devices running its upcoming BBX operating system will have 1024-by-600 touchscreens, whether they are tablets or handhelds, raising questions about whether there will be room for keyboards on the smaller units.

Since then, images and details of the BlackBerry Colt and London and leaked out, two upcoming models that are both keyboard-less. Although these are unconfirmed, they add to the mounting evidence.

Not So Fast
However, despite all this, RIM says that it hasn't abandoned keyboards. A company rep told Engadget that his company is "absolutely committed to building more great keyboard-based smartphones". 

What these will look like is not yet known. One possibility is using sliding keyboards. These would leave room for the 1024-by-600 on a handset, while still giving users the physical keyboards that they are accustomed to from BlackBerrys.

Senior vice president of Industrial Design, Todd Wood, described these upcoming devices as "charming, whimsical and fun" in an interview with Pocket-lint. What he means will have to wait until later. RIM says the first smartphones running the new BBX OS will be on the market early next year. They could be announced as early as CES in January, or at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in February.  

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