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Apple's introduction of a gesture-driven, touch-screen cellphone has done more than simply force a number of cellphone manufacturers to introduce their own touch-screen handsets. It's dividing the market into those who love touch screens and those who do not.
The stampede to create a competitive device has consumed a lot of companies, including Samsung, whose Instinct is about as close to an iPhone as you can get.
But Research in Motion, which has just released its own “third generation” (3G) phone, the BlackBerry Bold 9000, has not only kept the keyboard, it has made it central to the phone's operation, with the keys and trackball occupying half the face of the phone.
I haven't seen much discussion about this outside of the observation that the BlackBerry is a business phone, while others would prefer something else. This distinction is out of date, and assumes non-business people have little time for instant messaging, text messaging or writing e-mail.
Since some will want to have the option to do these things, Samsung has included in its Instinct a virtual keyboard – or perhaps more accurately, a vestigial keyboard. It is an order of magnitude more difficult to use than might be imagined, more awkward than the thumb-driven BlackBerry keyboards. (The Instinct has two virtual keyboards: a QWERTY one when it's in landscape mode and, oddly, a purely alphabetical one in portrait mode.) My own preference is toward the Blackberry, because I make few mobile phone calls but write a lot of e-mail messages; I also work at a desk, close to a land-line phone. Not everybody shares my situation, so I won't presume to suggest one phone or the other. All I can do is note the prices of the phone packages and list some of the finer points of the Bold and the Instinct.
Aside from the matter of text input, the Samsung Instinct and the BlackBerry Bold are differentiated mostly by the service providers and the plans they offer. Rogers offers the Bold at $399.99 with activation on any combination of three-year voice plan and three-year BlackBerry data plan totalling more than $45 a month from Rogers. The Instinct is offered by Bell, for $129.95 on a three-year contract, $279.95 on a two-year contract or $429.95 on a one-year contract (or $479.95 without a contract).
With apologies to Wallace Stephens, allow me to list:
