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I think the lack of a physical keyboard will have minimal impact on the success or failure of the iPhone.

Consider that millions of users adapted to the clunky text message interfaces of their cell phones. They aren't going to balk at a virtual keyboard, especially when the tradeoff is that you get a much larger screen for viewing video. A consumer that wouldn't buy the phone for lack of a physical keyboard probably isn't in the target market anyway.

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I was going to say the same thing. The whole article is mispremised. If you think, "Who would switch to a virtual keyboard from a real keyboard?" you'll have questions about the iPhone. If you ask, "Who wouldn't switch to a virtual keyboard from a cellphone 0 - 9 layout?" you'll understand the market the iPhone is targeting.

It's a consumer product, not a business product. The idea for the iPhone is that in 5 years everyone age 14-24 will have one, just as has already happened to the iPod.

The ban on corporate sales of the iPhone may be partly to prevent the early verdicts from being passed by Blackberry fans and others who are accustomed to typing lots of email on a large physical phone keyboard.

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