HTC’s Opera Company

In the late-90′s, comedian Dave Attell had a bit about going to the opera. He’d set up the joke by talking about how he went to the opera the other night and he was sitting out in the audience thinking, “Wow, look how much work it takes… to bore me.” In many ways, this is how I think a lot of people will view the impressive engineering HTC has done to create the hinge mechanism on the new T-Mobile G2. Known as the Desire Z in Europe (and probably soon the HTC Merge on Verizon), the G2 is HTC’s effort to remove some of the awkwardness of the landscape slider form factor by getting the screen to sit almost flush with the keyboard when in an open position. They seem to have pulled it off, but the question is at what cost and whether or not the effort is worth it.

HTC has gained a great reputation for making landscape keyboards, stemming from the success of the Touch Pro 2 and continuing through the G1 to the G2. What’s sad about this, though, is that this doesn’t seem to be a form factor that’s going to win out over time. Apple’s iPhone changed the game in 2007, partially for its disregard for the need for a hardware keyboard. The smartphone market has shifted hard in the same direction, largely because getting rid of a keyboard keeps the device thinner and reduces the number of moving parts. HTC has been leading that charge as well, with the remarkably thin Nexus One and the Desire line. Now they’ve come out with what is almost a spiritual successor to the Nexus One that is actually thicker. It’s not “thick” but it’s not competing with an iPhone 4 or a Samsung Galaxy either. In addition, they may be having some manufacturing issues with faulty hinges. When using the device, it certainly seems easy enough to accidentally break the hinge over time.

What is also puzzling about this is that of all of the Android manufacturers, HTC has done the best job of keeping pace with iOS development through their Sense UI and virtual keyboard, a software keyboard many people prefer over the stock Android keyboard. The success of the Desire and Evo should have been enough to convince them that their flagship phones don’t need to carry a keyboard. Keyboard-less phones are more and more becoming what average consumers think of when they imagine a high-end smartphone, and HTC is right there among the best manufacturers.

But wait, isn’t there a market out there that is really gung-ho about their keyboards and find it almost impossible to move off of them? Sure, they’re called Blackberry users and they have the luxury of using the best smartphone keyboards available. These keyboards, of course are all portrait keyboards that don’t require you to stretch your thumbs to fullest extensions just to reach the keys. The traditional Blackberry also makes the keyboard readily accessible without a sliding mechanism. After massive marketing from Verizon, so many Motorola Droid users were excited to pick up the first high-end Android phone, only to discover that flipping the phone open and turning it on its side wasn’t the most effective way to move around an OS that is essentially built to be used in portrait mode. Websites display far less in landscape mode and the constant opening and closing is a bit much for most users. Many end up just using the onscreen keyboard with no thought of opening up the phone.

There will always be a market of some sort for smartphones with keyboards. The question is whether HTC needs to be putting in as much effort as they are to positioning these phones as flagship devices. For as good as HTC hardware and design is, I doubt it.