[JustinMSalvato]

Well, seems safe to assume that we will NEVER see another Windows Phone with a portrait-slider keyboard.

It's a real shame too, because the form factor on the Dell Venue Pro is awesome.

[SnailUK]

Just because the initial batch of WP8 devices don't include sliders, doesn't mean there will never be one.

If Microsoft truely want to go after blackberry customers, they are likely to need a phone with a keypad.

[ColeHarris]

Just because the initial batch of WP8 devices don't include sliders, doesn't mean there will never be one.

If Microsoft truely want to go after blackberry customers, they are likely to need a phone with a keypad.

What Blackberry customers?

[Gaichuke]

What about a 820 with slider back cover?

[rockstarzzz]

What Blackberry customers?

Teens in the UK.

[pjs37]

Now you have the Windows Phone market which is tiny and you want to make a small niche product already in a tiny market, it doesn't make good business sense. And of course the 900 ib gorilla in the room that is the iPhone has no keyboard as well. So unfortunately I cannot say I am that surprised. However if Windows Phone devices take off in the enterprise market there is a good chance someone would make a business centric device with a keyboard.

That's of course all my opinion of what is likely to happen.

[thed]

Now you have the Windows Phone market which is tiny and you want to make a small niche product already in a tiny market, it doesn't make good business sense. And of course the 900 ib gorilla in the room that is the iPhone has no keyboard as well. So unfortunately I cannot say I am that surprised. However if Windows Phone devices take off in the enterprise market there is a good chance someone would make a business centric device with a keyboard.

That's of course all my opinion of what is likely to happen.

You hit the nail on the head here. People who want sliders are a niche market these days, and you can't target a niche within an already small customer base. If WP gains some traction then we might see them down the road.

[Winning Guy]

I wrote a small editorial article that touches on this at windowsphonefans.com.

To sum it up, I see this niche as mainly business. It's hard to target a niche form factor within a niche ecosystem. But the demand does exist.

It would make perfect sense for a Surface phone to tackle this area, since it's an area that WP OEMs can't afford to target right now.

[Winterfang]

Well, seems safe to assume that we will NEVER see another Windows Phone with a portrait-slider keyboard.

It's a real shame too, because the form factor on the Dell Venue Pro is awesome.

I don't think we will see another phone with a portrait slider period =(. I love how the Torch look.

[Heron_Kusanagi]

If WP8 works out, I see a possibility of 'new' form factors. Like how the S3 Mini serves the small phone crowd.

At least 20% market share before that happens though, I believe

Personally though, I am looking for a E7 successor from Nokia.

[mlm1950]

R.i.p.

[TenTwelve]

R.i.p.

Good riddance

[gsquared]

If Win 8 / WP8 picks up steam in the enterprise / government environment you will see some coming out. Those markets are too big to ignore. MSFT is positioning Win 8 as a consumer based product at this time however. Give it some time. That will change....

[ironsoulreaver]

I would love a portrait-slider again. last one I had was an SCH-i730. I hate how all the keyboard add ons made for phones are landscape. :@

[snowmutt]

Palm Pre .... Motorola Karma... Samsung Propel.... Sony-Erickson W760.

All portrait sliders, all phones I enjoyed. Easily my favorite form factor. When my BlackBerry Curve died, I was looking for used phones on Ebay to get me to the end of my contract and all three of them were portrait sliders: The Venue Pro, the Torch, and my Pre I already mentioned and ended up with.

I know it is probably the end of the line for them. Even among the keyboard crowd they were not huge sellers. Landscape or the traditional BlackBerry option seems to be it. Nokia will certainly put out a WP with a keyboard- the world wide customer base they have loves them. But a Portrait slider? No chance. I agree with everyone here: WP manufacturers will probably not roll the dice on a form factor that only a small % of a small audience would want. Makes me bummed.

[jabtano]

DVP that was and still is one of the best looking WP devices. But Dell turned it into a cluster bang of a disaster.

[mrmdj316]

What Blackberry customers?

The ones holding at least four times the share of Windows Phone, both globally and in the USA.

[jdevenberg]

I don't even like physical keyboards and I would buy a portrait slider. Some of my favorite phones of yore were portrait sliders.

[brmiller1976]

You know, the three-year-old ones with trackballs and scroll wheels that IT managers at old-line companies force on the poor employees. THOSE BlackBerries.

[sentimentGX4]

Like how the S3 Mini serves the small phone crowd.

The S3 Mini doesn't serve the small phone crowd. It's a low/mid range phone with completely different internals that Samsung decided to arbitrarily capitalize off the "Galaxy S" name out of.

It's no different than the low/mid range phones (which also happen to be small) on the market now except it's branded "Galaxy S".

[rockstarzzz]

You know, the three-year-old ones with trackballs and scroll wheels that IT managers at old-line companies force on the poor employees. THOSE BlackBerries.

Teens choose it though.

[Hammered Pizza]

Still popular in the UK. Not a clue why.

It's as if they don't know of any alternatives to BBM.

[lippidp]

Teens in the UK.

Last I saw BB has 5x the US marketshare that WP does. Anyway, I think if WP8 is successful then we will see keyboards. If it is not, then we won't. Just remember -- we all thought the stylus was dead and now it's a huge feature for Samsung! This is the problem with the consumerization of IT. We have to follow trends and not simply logic and reason, unfortunately.