Thanks largely to the fact that we are ‘used to’ a qwerty interface, phones such as RIM’s BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Curve 8900, and global market leader Nokia’s E-series phones have sold like hot cakes, although both companies declined to share India sales numbers.
Not that touchscreen phones don’t have their backers. Here are some counter bytes:
Anshul Gupta, principal analyst, Gartner: “In future, touchscreens will definitely move into the enterprise segment as it is not just the keypad that drives the business phone market.”
Anil Arora, BGM head-mobile communications, LG: “It is easier to interact with the screen directly without any intermediate device.”
Ajay Sharma, country head-HTC India: “Touchscreen phones offer a more engaging device experience for customers, enhancing their levels of interactivity with the device.”
However, some touchscreen enthusiasts agree that most business phone users feel more comfortable with qwerty keypads. Where touchscreen phones score heavily is in the navigation and browsing experience, and in being able to see the business applications on a full screen, such as in Samsung’s Omnia. “We have integrated business capability within the touchscreen segment,” says Sunil Dutt, country head of Samsung Mobile Business, hinting at features such as its use of the Windows Mobile operating system 6.1 professional, WAP2.0/HTML and Pocket Office-word, excel, powerpoint, one note and PDF viewer. Some more models samsung plans this year will have similar features.
How About A Combo?
Some touchscreen smartphone makers, including Samsung, are innovating hard to make greater headway in this low-volume, high-margin market. In November 2008, one of the leaders in the touchphone segment, HTC, launched the HTC Touch Pro, a new series of business applications-enabled touchscreen phones with qwerty keypads. “HTC has launched it to broaden its consumer base,” says Kuoni Travel’s Savla, who owns a HTC Touch Pro. In fact, there is talk about Samsung preparing a July launch for Omnia Pro, a next-gen Omnia with a physical qwerty. But, the company spokesperson denied any such possibility.
Nokia and BlackBerry, taking stock of the challenges, are rolling out their own touchscreen phones. RIM’s BlackBerry Storm comes with Surepress, a virtual qwerty keypad that gives the feel of a physical keypad. When you press a key on the virtual keypad, the screen physically depresses, giving a sense of the familiar tactile feedback. RIM also picked India among a few select geographies (the others being the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand) to launch the phone in initially. Nokia did the same for its first touchscreen phone, the 5800, a music phone that does not support mail for Exchange, the always-on ‘push’ email service for professional emails, and NMS (Nokia Messaging Service) for consumer emails. On 4 June, 2009, Nokia launched the touchscreen N97, but this time with a physical qwerty keypad, a la HTC. Nokia says, though, that it has not specifically released N97 for enterprise customers as it still banks on the (qwerty only) E-series phones.
As touchscreen and qwerty phone makers cross each other’s paths, the market is distinctly moving towards a situation of convergence. Whether the consumer takes to such converged devices or prefers to stick to one or the other ‘pure’ technology, is to be seen.
sunny dot sen at abp dot in
(Businessworld Issue Dated 23-29 June 2009)
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