14 DAY TRIAL // A couple of RIM's recent patent applications somewhat reveal what the handset manufacturer's plans for the future might be.
There is no way to tell weather these devices will be manufactured or start shipping soon, but this gives us the general idea of how innovative Research in Motion can be.
One of the patent applications has been filed at the beginning of January and is called 'Mobile device with rotatable keypad' and the device, as the name suggests will come with a rotatable keyboard meaning that while holding the Blackberry normally the numbers on the keypad will be displayed normally, while when you rotate the keyboard you will be able to text by using the text letters. What is really interesting is the fact that RIM might be taking into account the possibility of releasing a device with a clamshell form factor, which me might actually get to see the first clamshell Blackberry.
The second patent, named 'Multiple keyword context sensitivity for application usage' pretty much takes the keyboard included in a Blackberry to the next level.
The device comes with a standard keypad on the front and a full QWERTY keyboard on the back that can be flipped out when needed. In my opinion, the design of the keypad is pretty much similar to the one used with the Siemens SK65. So if it does come out with that keypad, the device will most likely be very convenient and easy to use for texting.
While RIM may in fact have plans to manufacture such handsets, there's really no way to tell when and whether these two handhelds will be presented to the public. But if they do decide to make them, we'll be seeing a lot of interesting handsets in the future.