Vesa Matti: Qwerty Is Technically A Possibility
Further to a comment made by Andre in the qwerty post of a few days ago, he reminded all of us sleepy summer holiday types that Jolla Developer, Vesa Matti made some interesting revelations at the recent Akademy conference held in Spain between the 13th-19th July.
We’ve uploaded the video for all to see and suggest it’s an interesting watch for any Jolla fans.
When you get to around 11:28, you can also hear some revelations about the other half which will certainly please any of you qwerty keyboard nuts – take a look here:
Some other interesting points that come out of the video are that Vesa reconfirms the bezel will be smaller than the one shown on his prototype device and that QT5/Wayland are confirmed for the first handset.
With the overwhelming response we’ve had over the past year regarding the qwerty topic, we also decided it was high time to chase Jolla up on the matter again via Twitter – here’s the current response straight from the horses mouth:
@MartiMasaKoegx @JollaTides We get into the market first with Jolla, and explore the possibilities as we go. Keep the feedback coming!
— Jolla (@JollaHQ) August 20, 2013
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So the current answer is as it was: “maybe, let’s wait and see”.
Honestly, I do hope they come around to it, but I don’t think they’ll get my interest(/money) until they do.
I don’t think it’s so much a problem of will, but more of maybe logistics and resources at this early stage which is why they need to get the handset out there to see which way the wind blows.
But saying that, where there’s a will, there is always a way and i think from the communities point of view if we can keep the noise levels up regarding the topics that are most vital to us, this can only be of benefit all round. ;-)
I’d like the other halves to be stackable! You know, like a swiss army knife… with everything!
Although if this would be the case, I’ll go bankrupt. With other halves it is like with Pokemons: Gotta catch them all!
For me that tweet sounds like a ‘No’. Face palm
the device could be thicker with a keyboard …
I sure hope that the limited edition other half that pre-orderers get is a hwkb.
My black N9 64 GB is my only device since more than a year. I can tell you that it still can keep up with the Droids and the iPhones of my colleagues at the office when used for business. In fact it’s a very good allrounder, nice for funtime, but also very sharp for handling business stuff (email, multiple attachments, multitasking). WP8 looks interesting to me, but, believe it or not, several features of, say a Lumia 920 or 925, are lacking when compared to good old N9. The only other “valid” device for me personally would be the Blackberry Z10 or Q10 (this one would solve the qwerty ssue !). I know, BB is in trouble right now, but I love underdogs… that’s why I went for MeeGo Harmattan in the first place in July 2012 ! I hope the Jolla will be jolly good, I pre-ordered, but it could end up in a fierce battle between Sailfish and BB for me. Wait and see.
I would’ve totally gone for it, but with the Indian Rupee taking a tumble against the USD and the fact that the N9 was never launched here in India, i’ll have to ship it and deal in dollars, which just is over my budget. So as of now, sticking to my loyal E5, will buy a Jolla when they launch it here next year! :D
Sorry Ukkooh, my answer should have been directed to Delirious !
Gosh, I hope not. Unless by “limited edition” they mean a fancy engraved series number or a special color or just that the preorders get it cheaper than the people who didn’t. Providing significant practical functionality in the limited edition that is unavailable at launch to those who didn’t preorder…especially functionality with such rabid fans as a HWKB has… would in my opinion be a gaffe almost on the same order of magnitude as unexpectedly delivering a completely different OS.
Okay random question here.
Would it make sense to but an N9 now rather than those sh**droids and say use it for about 2 years.
I’d like to watch what Jolla does in it’s initial stage and then buy a cell rather than jumping ship. Better safe than sorry, no matter how rosy things look now.
P.S. I own a lowly E5 now :P
buy*
I like my N9 but I have to accept it is showing it’s age in terms of function and capability now. It’s two years since the N9 was released. The N9 is a nice phone but it is not perfect either. I could write a list of faults and failings with the N9 just as easily as I could for any other phone I’ve owned. And there will be no more official firmware updates for the N9 and most of the software that is available for it is unlikely to see much in the way of updates now as well. It’s your decision but I know I will not be using the N9 in another two years from now.
As for Jolla and QWERTY, they are being totally uncommittal. They have said nothing but “maybe”. That “maybe” will only become a “yes” if we show that there is a market demand. How we do that in a way that Jolla will respond to… I do not know.
Appreciate your response :)
Are you a active follower of the TMO community? It may not be getting much love from Nokia (pretty much zero for ages now), but there’s still LOTS going on in the TMO community which breaths life into Harmattan.
stop being such qwerty fanboys. please. i get it. and I don’t have anything against qwerty. but when I read the posts on this site, I sometimes get the feeling, that this is one sole crusade of a desperate qwerty lover who doesn’t miss an occasion to slip this in. and as a reader, this gives me somehow the impression of lacking objectiveness and professionalism. so it would be great to keep that in mind for the future, because apart from that I really like this site. of course you can do what you want, but I just wanted do give you my feedback. and thx for your work btw.
Hi Tom thanks for your perspective.
It’s not about fanboys, it is about representing the community on a topic which is very close to many peoples hearts according to the many comments, polls and feedback we have here.
On a personal level, I do feel that offering a qwerty other half is a very wise business decision for Jolla as it would give them a USP that not many other manufacturers have at the moment – a way to stand out from the crowd if you will.
Not only this, but it would provide continuation from Maemo/MeeGo and even QT based Symbian products which had some of the core users that will already be attracted to Sailfish who are crying out for this feature.
If you feel this blog is unbalanced, I think if you read through the articles, you will see we try on the whole to always report in an objective way here. It just so happens that in the last few days there have been two posts in quick succession regarding hwkb, and the 2nd one was really to add some new information that came out in the discussion from the 1st article.
We are a little bit passionate sometimes about certain topics but at least hopefully this translates to some good feedback in the discussions for Jolla from the people who count. :-)
Have to agree with Tom. Some of the comments on here come across as though the Jolla phone is going to be unusable without a hardware keyboard. That’s just nuts.
If people really don’t like virtual keyboards then their choice is going to be pretty terrible. I really wonder how representative the readers are here if the majority are clamouring for hardware keyboards.
@Shaun
“If people really don’t like virtual keyboards then their choice is going to be pretty terrible.”
These days it’s not as if people have a choice in the matter – in Europe there is a serious drought of QWERTY models since Nokia went all touchscreen and likewise with other manufacturers. I would suggest a portion of people are backing Jolla because of the links to qwerty models like N900/N950 and the potential of the other half, in the hope that Jolla can deliver.
“I really wonder how representative the readers are here if the majority are clamouring for hardware keyboards.”
I’m not sure I really understand this comment – please could you explain ?
A few years ago, mobile phones were produced in a variety of form factors including those with hardware qwerty keypads. That variety no longer exists but the desire for hardware keypads hasn’t gone away amongst those that preferred and bought qwerty devices. I use both touchscreen and hardware keyboards. I can live with a touchscreen for simple things like status updates on social networks but when I’ve got some proper writing to do, especially when accuracy counts, a hardware keyboard cannot be beaten. Anyone care to replace the keyboard on their desktop or laptop computer with a touchscreen?
+1
Why not do a story asking readers if they specifically want no qwerty?
“UNLESS” it’s offered as a Other Half sometime in the future -maybe.
“Why not do a story asking readers if they specifically want no qwerty?”
And to be fair, put that proposition forward as regularly as you do for a Jolla WITH qwerty.
I would like to point out some other features which are essential for high-end or “pro” smartphones. The HW Qwerty keyboard alone can’t convert a smartphone to a good “professional smartphone”. If I would have been asked “what is your favorite smartphone which you could use in your profession, at job”, about 8 years ago I might have answered “Nokia 9300 is approaching what I need”. But today I must say “None on the market, Nokia N900 was approaching what I needed – perhaps also N950, but I never got one”. Among the missing features which on Nokia N900 and N9 were not perfect, but were exceptionally good, are:
– (but only on N900) physical Qwerty keyword, with shortcuts with the Ctrl key, and 4 arrow keys,
– text entry suffiently localized for a large number of languages
– acceptable text-editing features (with and without connection to the web)
– acceptable interface and synchronizing with Windows/Linux/Mac computers via USB cable and Bluetooth, using the File managers and applications of the “Pro smartphone” and the computers.
I have in mind many features how the use of a smartphone could be made “pro” easily, without making it “too perfect” (and therefor too expensibe) like the Ubuntu smartphone tries to be. With and without a HW Qwerty keyboard. But because the competitors of Jolla Ltd might be the first to apply those design guidelines, I don’t want to publish them here. This is why my question to “M* Jolla” is: what is the email address or phone number where I could address my report of ‘
“How to upgrade with little money the future Jolla phone to the professional category”?
Or, if that is not posible, could you forward this comment and my email address to a suitable person?
@egon
See here: http://jolla.com/contact/
[email protected] looks to be the most suitable email address…
Else see other comms avenues in the top right hand corner of the site.
But it will be a waste of time, read this:
http://jolla.com/unsolicited-ideas-terms-and-policy/
Supposedly their “co-creation program” will allow for input from users like yourself.
I’ll believe that when I see it…. >.>