Are you ready for an iPhone with a slide-out keyboard? Rumors are that Apple is mulling over a slide-out keyboard for its next-generation iPhone. According to a Taiwanese blog, Apple.pro, there are three different models being considered for final production as the iPhone 5, expected to be released this summer.
One model has a physical keyboard that slides out while another is said to be like an iPhone 4 in styling but with a longer-lasting battery and a better camera. If that report is to be believed, the upgrade from an iPhone 4 to that model of iPhone 5 would be similar to the modest improvements from iPhone 3G to iPhone 3GS.
In the past Steve Jobs has expressed his distaste for physical cell phone keyboards. In January 2007, on the launch of the original iPhone, Jobs told the MacWorld audience that Apple chose to use a multitouch virtual keyboard instead of a physical one in part because once a keyboard is put on a mobile phone, it’s there forever and hard to change the buttons to work with different applications.
