  DNP Switched On BlackBerry's depressing keyboard trends  In a
March interview, Google chairman Eric Schmidt, whose company's
smartphone ambitions led to his vacating a board seat at Apple,
claimed that he didn't use either an Android phone or iPhone.
Rather, he uses a Blackberry, citing his affinity for its
keyboard despite a number of Android models released over the
years integrating physical thumb keyboards.  RIM devices had
keyboards even before they had email; the feature was part of
the BlackBerry's predecessor, the RIM Inter@ctive Pager. Indeed,
tactile feedback was so valued by the company that it tried to
integrate it into the touchscreen with the BlackBerry Storm. In
reviewing that phone for The New York Times, David Pogue noted,
"A BlackBerry without a keyboard is like an iPod without a
scroll wheel." Imagine such a thing.  Indeed, like the click
wheel, the keyboard has faded quickly from that landscape.
According to Mobile Phone Track, a consumer purchase-tracking
service of The NPD Group, hands