Death Of The Blackberry: Will The QWERTY Keyboard Survive Apple's Touch Screen?

GR Communications President Gord Rosko was not happy when he heard the news of the 'death of the Blackberry' - the ubiquitous keyboard desing that appeals to users when virtual keyboards are present in all smaartphones.

But reports have surfaced saying Blackberry is about to leave the smartphone market. In essence, that would be similar to Nokia being taken over by Microsoft, but there is no indication of a buyer for Blackberry. The smartphone catered for the business user has had tremendous appeal over the last decade.

Rosko said in a vcpost.com article, "What I call my fat Polish fingers have a hard time with touch screen keyboards. So I'm going to keep using this thing until I can't anymore." This is the way many people who are uncomfortable with touch screen keyboards feel about the Blackberry.

But for those who are optimistic that the Blackberry will survive the conjoining of Apple with former rival IBM, CEO John Chen has brought up Blackberry shares to 40% since November when he took over. In some sense, Chen has executed a strategy that makes stakeholders think he is capable of engineering a turnaround for the beleaguered tech firm. At one time, Blackberry reached the heights that Apple now enjoys, but the smartphone scenario has changed drastically with mobile browsing, and the smartphone slowly edging out the traditional desktop and laptop use.

VCPost.com reported, "The downfall of BlackBerry was precipitated by the introduction of a touchscreen keyboard by Apple's iPhone. Now, the other smartphone makers such as Samsung and Motorola Mobility is taking up the cudgels of the niche market that BlackBerry may leave behind."