As long as patent troll companies sue each other over who invented the round or square edge and users continue to amazed and entertained by their yearly 1mm thinner candybar phone upgrade there is no economic place for the keyboard phone to be made by a small player that has global commercial ambitions such as Jolla.

This weekend I tried the Blackberry Pasport in a store.
Actually I did not have much time alone with it as the seller was like a spider in a web onto everyone touching it, eager and genuinely enthusiastic to show off his personal passport setup after 2 weeks of using it as his primary. Funny he was congratulating me touching the greatest device in the whole store (large FNAC in France) and the colleages seemed to agree.
I entertained him with many many questions (one more rhetorical than the other) and finally got asked for the picture as proof of activity on Blackberry sales efforts.

The device looked not to big at all, actually a little less nice in finish then I had imagined but still good and of course the keyboard is a true relief being it for typing or for smart scrolling and activating windows.
Camera seemed lacking macro option but the focus went really close and thanks to the large screen it is very convenient to touch move the focal point around.
Selecting files for sending via email, wifi, BT etc seemed to work as expected.
For the business types opening an spreedsheet was pure joy to the eye.
Browsing looked good indeed and there is a reader function like in Firefox.

But on the other hand it quickly looked like starting all over again: cookies options, quickly and selective anabling of javascript / flash options, it all looks so limited.. compared to even MicroB.
Where's the call recorder (gave some MP3 downloader Android based, no thanks) built in SIP,.. when I notice the seller selecting text with a magnifying glass option and taking his time my evil side took overhand and I told hime that's to slow man, pulled my N900 and showed him a how text is selected desktop style cursor followed ctrl+v, ctrl+c on my 2 times smaller by todays standard cute, little device.
From the looks of N900's open windows and smooth operation I don't think in that shop anybody could tell its 256MB and 600Mhz age.

A little nerd battle a day keeps the doctor away.

It was clear one of us had no prior notion of the existence of the other , favorite device.

I am sure the Passport is great if you want to get stuff done (business style) and one of the best options if you can't stand sacrificing 1/3rd of your glorious big screen for online typing most of the time But for me personally throwing principles that make me support Jolla and paying 600 to start all over again 2 steps forward one step back..
No thanks, I 'll just wait and see.