In Praise of Buttons, Which the iPhone Doesn't Have

While in Los Angeles, I stopped by the office of Helio founder Sky Dayton, the ultra-savvy wireless entrepreneur. And we got talking about the iPhone -- in particular, the belief among many in the industry that iPhone style touch screens are the wave of the future in wireless gadgets.

"I don't think anything will ever replace buttons," Dayton said as he handled the Helio-designed Ocean phone, which has a physical QWERTY keypad and a physical phone keypad. He explains that the Internet generation communicates with its fingers as much as voice -- typing IMs and text messages, annotating video, moving pictures around. "And fingers need something to push," he added.

He used the iPhone for a week to fully check it out, and concluded: "You can't type on it."

Not everyone agrees, but I do. I tried typing emails on an iPhone and made way too many mistakes using the on-screen keyboard. I couldn't imagine the iPhone replacing my Treo for mobile email.

Dayton seemed only mildly impressed with the iPhone, but is grateful that Apple is helping push the market toward premium, innovative phones. The cell phone carriers have gotten hooked on offering free, generic phones to get people to buy the service. Helio and Apple are trying to convince people that its worth spending hundreds of dollars for a device that goes way beyond the usual capabilities.

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