HTC: No plans for any more QWERTY keyboards


RIP QWERTY

HTC may well have manufactured its last ever QWERTY keyboard phone after admitting it has no plans to revisit the form factor.

Pocket-lint attended the Frequencies event in Seattle where HTC’s design team spoke candidly about moving away from phones with physical keyboards, with emphasis very much being on touchscreens.

As one of the pioneers for Android – an operating system that works far better with a larger screen - HTC has predominantly concentrated on touchscreen phones.

However, only last year we saw the HTC ChaCha, a QWERTY keyboard sporting handset.

Yet even one button access to Facebook wasn’t enough to convince consumers and the HTC ChaCha subsequently received a lukewarm reception.

Whether it was the ChaCha’s underperformance that has caused HTC to reevaluate its road plan it’s hard to say, but Pocket-lint for one still feels there is a place for HTC QWERTY phones.

Let’s hope it’s more a sabbatical rather than a retirement.

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