They will come back when people realise they are better, like volume controls on car stereos went to push buttons then came back to a rotating knob.

So that is why people went back to Betamax from VHS, and went back to Sony Walkman from iPods. This alternative reality stuff is neat, eh?

Those aren't really appropriate analogies....

Yeah, I though it was obvious I was implying easy of use.

On screen keyboards are just a trend following the iphone. They are a pain in the arse; the keyboards obliterates the screen and has zero tactile feed back.
HTC's new Desire now sports a hardware keyboard, people want them.
How long before they get resistive screens?

All LG phones I know are:

****

Locked in functionality like Bluetooth.



For me LG is Apple without the good hardware. Actually, quite awful hardware at that.

I'd rather ANYONE else steped up.....

Erm, actually... the Psion had a keyboard, then the Palm & iPaq didn't, and then the Sony Clie did, and then the n700/n800 didn't, and then the n810 did, and then the iPhone didn't, and then the n900 did. It is a matter of personal taste, and quality. Having a keyboard is much more useful to me than not having one - so there will always need to be both. The place where I can see there being an advantage in losing the keyboard is in a large multi-touch tablet, because there is enough space to allow for a large on-screen keyboard that allows you see what you are typing as you touch-type. Dials, rather than buttons, are a fashion thing - like black stereos vs silver stereos. Betamax was better than VHS, but VHS replaced it. Once Sony lost the lead with both these devices (Betamax and Walkmans), they never regained the market share in that area.

What makes you think that Nokia, that once led the world in mobile phones, having effectively lost out on the smartphone & emerging tablet market, can stand back and hope to
establish a position in this new market? It can only be because they know that the majority of people in the world want a cheap, basic, uncomplicated phone. That is because the majority of the world's consumers do not live in countries with well-developed communications infrastructure, and are over the age of 25.

Phones like the n900 appeal to a very limited number of people - and most of the people I know who have had a smart-phone have traded them in for a more basic model. That is because most people want them to make phone calls with and to text people. Anything else they can do on an iPod or laptop.

Again wrong analogy, too many incorrect asumptions, and I was talking about hardware keyboards on smartphones and not N900s.

Please - have the last word.

Sure, and what I was saying was that just because something is better, it doesn't necessarily mean that you will get it.

Or like the comeback of vinyl. Because if it ain't analog it ain't music. And yes I am serious. Vinyl had and still has a warmth that no digital media has yet to equal.

Agree completely. Not just vinyl. I have a few 78's, and on a decent deck they sound amazing. A few crackles, but I have one of Paul Robeson, and it sends shivers down my spine - it is like he is in the room. No CD, or even album, I have heard sounds like that. That is because there is very little between him and me. His voice, captured by a microphone, transferred to disk. Today, you don't know whether what you are listening sounds anything like the source - because it is over produced. Of course, somebody here will tell me I don't know what I am talking about. But I have the 78s, and you don't. I also have the LPs. LPs printed before the mid 1970s are superior to those printed after. That is because before the oil crisis, LPs were thicker, and the press allowed for deeper grooves. That means that old LPs originally played on older equipment sound great on newer equipment - because the stylus can track the lower part of the groove that has less wear. I have an original copy of the soundtrack to Young at Heart with Frank Sinatra and Doris Day - sounds amazing, even though it was played for years using an old Decca Deram needle. Ditto for my original LPs by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, etc. The difference shows most on Jazz and Classical. Listening to some of my vinyl again after nearly 20 years of digital music was an epiphany. LOL. No comparison.