Don’t look for HTC to rush into a true successor to the QWERTY-based T-Mobile G2 anytime soon. Â What’s more, you shouldn’t expect to see them offer up a Droid Razr Maxx-like battery for any of their future models. As part of their decisions to slow down on the number of handsets, HTC wants to make every single effort count. Â That means giving the fans exactly what they want.
According to studies conducted in late 2011, consumers would rather have a thin phone than one that features, say, a 3300mAh battery. Â It’s too bad we were not part of the focus group because we feel the exact opposite on this matter.
Speaking at a press event in Seattle, HTC’s creative director, Claude Zellweger advised that the company was moving toward a touch-only form factor for future devices. Instead of spending time and effort on new designs, HTC would rather focus on services and the on-screen keyboard.
As a company the QWERTY keyboard we’re moving away from in general…We feel that putting too much effort into that [QWERTY] would take away from our devices.
Now this doesn’t exactly mean the days of the sliding keyboard are over for HTC. Â Rather, this is just their way of saying that they’re not in a hurry to put one together.
You Tell Us
How do you feel about this decision? Â Were you hoping to replace your next handset with a QWERTY keyboard smartphone or have you gone all-in with touch devices?
Amazing…. those two are just exactly what I want.
Who did they poll? I don’t know anybody that has had a problem with the size of HTC phones. As a matter of fact the size, build quality and it’s feel has kept many people from buying the plastic -feeling Samsung phones. People want HTC to produce a phone that does not need an OTA the first week to fix shipped glitches (usually pertaining to [you guessed it] the BATTERY). They want a battery that lasts all day to come WITH the $500 + phone they paid for. It’s not hard (Razr Maxx – wink wink). I am a touch screen fan so I can’t weigh in on loosing the physical pad, but everyone has had battery complaints with HTC. This is totally the wrong move forward.
Wrong way to go. I am an HTC fan. Loved my D’Inc, love my D’Inc 2. I am anxiously awaiting the D’Inc 3/4G, but the battery life of the Razr Maxx has me leaning toward Moto. The thought of going all day without juice concerns is way to tempting. A company like HTC should be able to pull off the same feet as Moto and make a thin 4G phone with the stamina to go all day and night.
The razr is honestly a really ugly phone the interface is horrible and the bigger the battery doesn’t necessarily mean better battery life. Htc will probably make more efficient processors to hurdle the battery problem.
You can have my keyboard when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
Good to hear the qwerty keyboard is gone. Higher capacity battery is necessay with minimum impact on the phone’s slim profile. What they missed out is they should not rush out phones with crappy firmware causing lots of bugs and frustration to the user. Happened to HTC One X model on firmware version 1.26. The only choice is custom rom or bear the frustrations until firmware version 1.28 is available for my region. Other than the firmware, the HTC One X is simply an amazing phone.
They are right that I don’t want a bulky phone, but I do want a phone that lasts throughout the day!
i want it all. badass touchscreen with a sk4g qwerty razor thin that lasts  2 weeks on a single charge……oh  and breakfast  all for less then 100 bucks
I agree that a thick phone isn’t going to sell but HTC has to understand that if a phone is the best looking in the world but only works for an hour it’s useless…
A couple of years ago I would have sworn that a hardware keyboard was a must, but then I got my G2 which has poor 4 row keyboard as well as Swype and now I don’t see a keyboard as remotely essential. In the future I’d consider a phone with a keyboard but only if it’s a full 5 row.
As for batteries, the worst thing about HTCs new direction is not just that they are using small batteries, but that these batteries are not replaceable. What that means is that your battery will barely get you through the day when the phone is brand new and after a year and a few hundred charge/discharge cycles you will be forced to carry a charger around everywhere you go.
I personally don’t think that HTC is making a wise decision. I have friends that used to swear by a hardware keyboard but now say that they can work just as well with swype…then again it takes them twice as long to type out a message, and they almost always have autocorrect errors. I get emails from people I work with who have iphones and the errors always look unprofessional.
I’m currently rocking the 2 year old epic 4g, and honestly, with a full keyboard, AMOLed screen and ICS via CM9, there really isn’t a phone on the market w/ a keyboard that can beat mine.
There are a lot of people that want a full keyboard, but most manufacturers are ignoring the need.