3G GSM numeric cell phone keypads are out, out, out. The rotary dial is taking it along to Dodo land. Instead we are being blessed with the new wireless Internet innovations of Touch screens and QWERTY keyboards.

North American electronic shows, the latest being Vegas, herald in the new while ushering out the old; and it is quite safe to say that there are only few mobiles prepaid or postpaid that have a numerical keypad any longer instead of at least an alphabetic keyboard. Touch screens are more or less the big in thing.

Why is all this happening? Well maybe it is something to do with the fact SMS text messaging volume overshot the US budget deficit if you put in messages in a year for $ spent. This is astounding growth versus two years ago when SMS was big but still only 30% of today’s volume. Calling by comparison went up a measly 6% or so. Ensquared a leader in unlocked cell phones cover cheap SMS, 3g unlocked cell phones for travel as well as other key aspects of the cell phone world

So as habits change and as applications morph and morph again the pressure on phone design is huge. Nokia, Blackberry and Apple are all moving to make things easier, faster, cheaper and offer more of everything in a smaller, easier to use 3G GSM handset. The move to touchscreens is a seismic shift in design but very necessary if the manufacturer wants to stay ahead.

ATT is bringing on new phones faster than you can blink ranging from Samsung unlocked prepaid and postpaid to locked iPhone postpaid. All have touch screen technology or feature typewriter keyboards, and in some cases have both. Some makers no longer make keypad mobiles at all. This includes in their ranks Samsung unlocked phones.

Another interesting scenario is Motorola with its new GSM handset called Evoke, which will embrace touch screen features. However, it still sold one keypad low cost phone on the show. We believe that the reason Evoke has not blasted in yet is that a service provider has not yet been found to carry it.

Let’s look at what else was going on at the Vegas show. LG has a new cell phone for the unlocked market prepaid as you go, namely the GD900 model, that again underlined the disappearance of the numeric keypad. Interesting feature on this phone is the way a pad slips in and out of the frame made of see through plastic. There is absolutely no need for a keypad based on the fact the screen is touch-sensitive – a commonality throughout the LG 3G range of cell phones.

Is there a place for this change to begin and end? Not in the 3G GSM USA Florida to New York unlocked cell phone world or any other State it seems. It was made clear by AT&T that even their lowest priced phones were going to sport keyboards – even though their cost is a lowly $30 or so from LG and Samsung. So where have all the keypads gone? Overseas, every one. Well so it seems, as the touchscreen demand on GSM prepaid and postpaid phones are US based in the main.

This is not to say that touch screens are not gaining ground world wide, but people abroad have got into the habit of SMS texting on keypads from long ago. The U.S. market embraced 3G GSM unlocked and locked cell phones like the Treo and the BlackBerry – the very first of the Smartphone’s and it taught these new ways to US residents early as well, but in another direction. Bottom line on the Vegas show was that Sony Eriksson and Nokia are still in the keypad arena going strong and marketing to whole segments the rest of the world may have forgotten about.