Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s Legend: Can Research In Motion Ltd (BBRY) Prove Him Wrong?

Way back in 2007 — in what now feels like ancient history — Steve Jobs gave what many consider his best product unveiling ever: the iPhone. The Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) co-founder started off by assessing the current state of the smartphone market and displayed a handful of current smartphones of the day.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Jobs showed the Motorola Q, Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) Pearl, Palm Treo, and Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) E62 as examples of not-so-smart smartphones.

Source: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).

The biggest flaw that they all shared was in what he called the “bottom 40%,” referring to the lower 40% of their form factors being dedicated to hardware keyboards with fixed physical keys that couldn’t accommodate new software features that may be subsequently released.

Source: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).

It’s worth noting that of the four smartphone makers that Jobs highlighted, two are currently fighting for their lives while the other two are no longer stand-alone entities: Motorola was split up with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) snapping up the mobile side and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) will never live down its acquisition of Palm.

Three of them — along with virtually every other major smartphone manufacturer in the world — have abandoned prominent hardware keyboards in high-end devices. Almost no one offers flagship devices with a full QWERTY keyboard intended for portrait usage. To be fair, some companies like Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) and Samsung offer QWERTY keyboards, but only in models that are clearly targeted at the low end.

For all intents and purposes, Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is the only one left standing in the high end of that niche. Can Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)’s new Q10 single-handedly prove Steve Jobs wrong?

BlackBerry’s final stronghold
That device is very much expected to price at the high end when it launches in the U.S.: $250 on contract. That’s a premium relative to the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone, flagship Androids, and Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)’s own Z10. That’s a bold bet on QWERTY. However, many of Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)’s most loyal fans are hardware keyboard enthusiasts and have been patiently waiting for the new generation.