Cell Phone Keypads Disappearing
At a recent CTIA Wireless trade show and at trade shows across America, more and more new cell phone models are replacing the numeric keypad for a full keyword. This is a welcome sign for those that like to text and like to use a full type-writer style keyboard when texting. Another popular input device is the touch screen made popular by the Apple iPhone. The industry is adapting to the large volume of text messages being sent which increased three times to 1 trillion in 2008 compared to 2007. During this same period of time the number of calls made only increased by 5%.
International Users
Two manufacturers are coming out with new designs that do feature the numeric keypad, Nokia and Sony Ericson. From reports by international users, only North American consumers favor the full type-writer keyboard while other countries have adapted to the numeric keypad for their texting. Since Nokia and Sony Ericson are more popular abroad and have smaller market share in America, it makes sense for them to continue developing these types of devices.