On an iPhone, this is merely a way to compensate for the lack of real-estate you can dedicate to the keyboard. On a blackberry you have all of these keys accessible as alternates by holding down the ALT key. This includes all of the letters, numbers, backspace, enter, shift keys and these characters: ()_-+@#*/:;;"?!,$.

Typing on a blackberry is much easier and quicker, making it a lot better for email and chat.

I'd personally like to a new blackberry all the same, except the screen would also be a touch screen. Keep the small laptop-like touchpad, though.