I've only started one thread here and it was all about this, and there were plenty explaining why they wanted a d - pad, and the consistent nokia answers that it was not needed in the next generation.

gaming, two handed operation, one handed operation!, but mostly OPTIONS - it gives more choice on how to use and set up your own tablet, but the nokia side seemed to be all about the fact that it made the software proramming more difficult because it had to take into account GIVING people more options.

The overall outcome of the thread was that nokia had fallen for the iphone design and it was a done deal. I would have thought the actual question that should be above is not "why would you need one" but "if you don't need one why are you here instead of off playing with your iphones?"