Apple's iPhone mobile phone will grow a keyboard - more reports

04 July 2008

Apple may be working on a corporate iPhone with a slide-out keyboard

Analysts have reported that Apple is working on a new version of the iPhone with a slide-out keyboard. Aimed more at the corporate sector, the mooted design would, if released, be likely to be slated for a mid-2009 release date.

The thought behind the release of such an iPhone variation would be to target the Blackberry-based business sector and, despite its good performance against the brand in the USA, it's other brands such as HTC, Sony Ericsson and Nokia which are given to staff members in Europe.

It's this particular market that Apple has its eye on. It's also seen that this sub-market enjoys typing on QWERTY keyboards and not touch-screen phones, such is the legacy inertia of this sector - more used to typing on laptops than learning about the joys of Apple's touch interface.

Reports from The Register website say that actual prototypes have been issued to selected executives for in-depth testing.

Click to read The Register story