QWERTY Touch Monobloc Form Factor, How Many Devices Are Out There? ~ SCRATCH e-PAD!

I've recently became an advocate of a Monobloc QWERTY Touch phone, it came to my realization after trying every possible touchscreen devices from different Operating System in the market at the moment which in many ways than one, failed to fit my needs, preference and lifestyle. I consider touchscreen interface as more of a burden to me than ease especially in writing messages, one of my most used feature.

As I've mentioned in my past articles, my mobilephone is half of my blog's life, it is where I wrote most of my articles and the primary device that I use to connect socially via Instant Messenger, Twitter, Foursquare or Facebook which needs a very able messaging system to be able communicate. Virtual touchscreen input is a big joke if it will be fitted to this kind of setup, virtual keypads just frustrates. Monobloc because sliding equates vulnerability and I don't want to constantly worry about the device all the time.

So back to the question, how many mobilephone devices are there that sports the form factor whom I consider the ultimate of them all. You'll be quite surprise!

If we exclude Chinese cloned phones, there were 53 known branded devices in the market at the moment with the very first device released 9 years ago, the Palm Treo 600. It has a Palm Operating System with a 160x160 pixel 2.5 inches resistive touch panel. The phone actually had quite a feature; web browser, organizer, games, card slot, etc. From right then, there where 5 more phones that come out from the company with Palm Pixi Plus as the latest in the bunch.

Though Palm was the first one to come out with the form factor, it was Microsoft Windows Mobile Operating System that rule the segment with Benq offering the very first device, the P50, a 2.8 screen size phone with a resistive touch panel. There where 31 more phones that came out afterwards with Sony Ericsson's Aspen as the latest in the bunch.

Symbian jumped into the Touch QWERTY segment 3 years after via Sony Ericsson's M600, a UIQ running 2.6 inches, 240 x 360 pixel resistive touch panel phone. But instead of single key per letter mechanism, they infuse two letters in one key. Only 2 more phones came out afterwards, the Sony Ericsson M606 and the Sony Ericsson P1 as the company put its development to rest in 2008.

Android operating devices starts to pop out recently with Huawei leading the way, the U8300, an Android Eclair phone with 2.6 inch resistive touch screen display. Following the trend where 5 more devices from Motorola, Acer and Dell with the Motorola DROID Pro XT610 on the frontline.

On the rumor mill is the Meego Operating System joining the segment with an E72-like business centric device carrying ARM CPU, 640 x 480 VGA screen, HSPA, WIFI and 8MP Carl Zeiss camera with autofocus. It is currently the most interesting device in this segment having seen how impressive the Meego Operating system was in the early pre-production versions. This phone might see the light of day in the upcoming World Mobile Congress next month.

So there you go folks, the not so long history of my very much regarded best form factor of all, the QWERTY Touch Monobloc. More than one reason or another, this segment might grow forward in the upcoming years with the growing number of people getting frustrated with lone touchscreens. Try a little survey like I did, asking my colleagues at work if they like touchscreen on a phone, a massive 80% say they don't because of the very obvious reason, messaging difficulty.