does anybody know why iPhone has no physical QWERTY keyboard?

[code_grey]

in related news, "Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard" http://www.theonion.com/video/apple-...with-no,14299/

Anyway, does anybody understand why this is? Does Steve Jobs believe that the typical iPhone user has no interest in writing anything beyond two sentences? Or is the iPhone virtual keyboard comparable in convenience to a real miniature QWERTY for writing long texts, e.g. emails, detailed notes etc?

[sjc]

Originally Posted by code_grey

in related news, "Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard" http://www.theonion.com/video/apple-...with-no,14299/

Anyway, does anybody understand why this is? Does Steve Jobs believe that the typical iPhone user has no interest in writing anything beyond two sentences? Or is the iPhone virtual keyboard comparable in convenience to a real miniature QWERTY for writing long texts, e.g. emails, detailed notes etc?

I'm not sure where you'd fit the physical keyboard. I have an ipod touch, and I find that I can write pretty well with the on screen keyboard. It's not as fast or easy as a full sized keyboard, but it's at least as easy a mini-keyboard like you'd have to have on a device that small.

[enalzi]

That isn't an iPhone only thing. A lot of smartphones don't have physical keyboards. It took me a while, but I'm better at typing on a virtual keyboard on my Android phone than I was typing on my Blackberry's physical keyboard.

[Martin Hyde]

Because it doesn't need one. Companies like Apple do studies, extensively, before releasing a major product. Back when they released the first generation iPhone I'm willing to bet they explored the pros and cons of small physical keyboards such as you see on the BlackBerry and other phones.

I know some people who, with extensive use of touchscreens, still prefer the small QWERTY keyboard. However, I suspect that studies done by the cell phone companies have shown that for a majority of users, the touchscreen keyboard is superior after adjusting to it.

I do think some touchscreen advocates oversell the technology. I think it's great in the phone and tablet form factor, but I basically think someone has magic beans to sell if they try to tell you the touchscreen interface is good for typing in long documents, working with spreadsheets or et cetera. Even when you read reviews from people who are in love with the iPad, they usually say it isn't very good for working with spreadsheets or typing in long documents.

However, the use cases that require a keyboard actually are smaller than you might suspect when you compare it to the normal use of consumers. For enterprise uses obviously there are many millions of individuals that do a lot of touch-typing and/or working with spreadsheets and other tasks. No one is expecting touch to replace the keyboard/mouse for those people, but individuals who mostly only use a computer for home web browsing, video streaming, brief emails...that is a big market and one where evidence is showing a traditional keyboard isn't as important.

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

Originally Posted by code_grey

Anyway, does anybody understand why this is?

Including a physical keyboard guarantees that the physical space the keyboard requires on the phone is always unavailable for any purpose other than being a keyboard. Physical space on devices like smart phones and tablet PCs is very limited. The virtual keyboard can go away entirely and allows more of the phone to be used for other purposes when no keyboard is required.

[Chimera]

It has a touch screen with a fair amount of real estate. It doesn't need a physical keyboard.

[BigT]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy Dunlop

Including a physical keyboard guarantees that the physical space the keyboard requires on the phone is always unavailable for any purpose other than being a keyboard. Physical space on devices like smart phones and tablet PCs is very limited. The virtual keyboard can go away entirely and allows more of the phone to be used for other purposes when no keyboard is required.

No it doesn't. The keyboard can hide away, like it does on quite a few touchscreen phones that do have keyboards. And, yes, they have iPhone sized screens.

And I can't see how it's superior when it has to have a large amount of autocorrect to be useful.

[Mikahw]

Originally Posted by BigT

No it doesn't. The keyboard can hide away, like it does on quite a few touchscreen phones that do have keyboards. And, yes, they have iPhone sized screens.

The phone would have to be slightly thicker to hold the keyboard inside it, which would make Steve very angry. Other things that make Steve angry include laptops that run cooler but have a tiny amount of audible fan noise when they're idling.

[Ephemera]

Autocorrect isn't only used or abused for smartphones. Every cell phone I've used has it.

[Rick]

I would just like to note that the virtual keys on my iPhone are much larger than the physical keys I have seen on Blackberrys.
So if you think typing on an iPhone is hard, it is doubly so (or worse) on a Blackberry.

[MsWhatsit]

I've used a physical keyboard on a friend's phone, and didn't really prefer it to the touchscreen keyboard on my iPhone, although obviously part of that might just be that I'm used to the touchscreen, having used it extensively at this point. I do like that the touchscreen "keys" are bigger than the physical keys are.

I really don't find the touchscreen a hindrance. I've used my phone to make multi-paragraph posts on message boards and the like, and while obviously it's quite a bit slower than typing with a full-sized keyboard, I don't think it's significantly slower than using a phone-sized physical keyboard.

[Moonlitherial]

I used to be a regular blackberry user. They were issued by my employer and corporate culture was that you were available and responded no matter where you were so I got very very good at typing on the keyboard.

I switched to the iPhone when I changed jobs and I don't use it even close to as often but it still only took me a couple of months to be comfortable using it.

Overall I prefer the iPhone for it's functionality but if I was using it solely for email, I would go back to the old blue Blackberry in a second flat. As a single function device it was awesome. It couldn't handle a phone call at the same time you were looking up information or emailing however.

[code_grey]

ok, some google searching returns addons that seem to provide a physical keyboard for the iPhone. E.g. this bluetooth thingie sells for the exorbitant $80 http://www.zahipedia.com/2011/03/18/...d-to-iphone-4/

So I guess there is something for everyone. If such addons are reasonably priced, it is perfectly natural to allow some to use them and others (folks who don't type much, are good at touchscreens or care too much about thickness) to do without.

[code_grey]

Originally Posted by Rick

I would just like to note that the virtual keys on my iPhone are much larger than the physical keys I have seen on Blackberrys.
So if you think typing on an iPhone is hard, it is doubly so (or worse) on a Blackberry.

Rick, I never said that typing on touchscreen is hard because of size of keys. If anything, I have small fingers.

I guess I ought to borrow an iPhone and practice more, some time this decade. I remember feeling that "touchscreen sucks" when I tried, but apparently I never articulated the precise reasons for this even to myself.

Given that some people in this thread don't like the touchscreen either, maybe they could chime in.

[Nzinga, Seated]

I feel like the physical keyboard is old fashioned. I honestly look at that shit like a rotary or something now. Can't go back to it.

[RealityChuck]

It doesn't look cool. Touchscreen keyboards are garbage, but they do look cool, and as far as Apple is concerned, appearance always trumps functionality.

Other phones are just following the trend.

[Ephemera]

Yeah, that's exactly why I have a touchscreen. It couldn't be that I actually prefer the greater screen real estate, or the larger buttons.

A lot, if not most of us don't give a fuck about appearing to be cool. If so, I wouldn't be driving a station wagon or living in a mobile home.

[Joey P]

Originally Posted by RealityChuck

Touchscreen keyboards are garbage

As someone that has an Android with a slide out keyboard, I'll have to disagree. I've had this phone for over a year and the only time I've used the slide out keyboard is the handful of times I've needed the D-pad when I was have a problem placing the cursor.

[Munch]

As with everything, there's a learning curve. And things with learning curves tend to turn people off during their initial exposure to them. So the first few times you use a touchscreen keyboard, you're likely not going to like it. That reaction isn't invalid - but it doesn't hold very much weight.

Yeah - the iPhone has a fair amount of auto-correct. Why is that a bad thing? The end result is still very efficient. I can type out a text message faster than my friends with blackberries or other physical buttons. Once I learned to let autocorrect do its thing, my typing speed probably tripled.

[tumbleddown]

I am an iPhone owner, but my phone immediately prior to it was an LG EnV, which had a physical keyboard like so, with keys about the same size as the T-Mobile Sidekick, and much larger than a Blackberry's keyboard and I'd never use it for anything more complex than a tweet. I hated emailing on that thing and forget anything else.

Meanwhile, on my iPhone, I tweet, I email, I play word games and games on Sporcle that are all typing all the time. I write grocery lists, I write (short) blog posts, I write detailed captions for photos I take on the phone then upload to Flickr. I'd post here but I don't have that forum app and I'm on a not-buying-apps moratorium right now.

[Chimera]

That should say;

"Ounce I leaned to let autocorrect do its think, my typing speak probably tripped."

[Alessan]

I have an iPhone, I don't use autocorrect, and I manage to type as fast as I need to.

[Rick]

Originally Posted by code_grey

Rick, I never said that typing on touchscreen is hard because of size of keys. If anything, I have small fingers.

I guess I ought to borrow an iPhone and practice more, some time this decade. I remember feeling that "touchscreen sucks" when I tried, but apparently I never articulated the precise reasons for this even to myself.

Given that some people in this thread don't like the touchscreen either, maybe they could chime in.

There was a learning curve, I admit.
first time I played with an iPhone I couldn't type a sentence for shit. I was always hitting the key to the side of the key I wanted. That was caused by me looking down the side of my index finger to sight where I was aiming. Once I realized that the actual was about 1/2" over from the edge of my finger, I got good quick. Took me about 2 days to get OK at it and about a week to get good. Playing Mahjong and solitaire helped a bunch in practicing my aim.

[Merneith]

Steve Jobs hates buttons. Really.

[MsWhatsit]

Originally Posted by RealityChuck

It doesn't look cool. Touchscreen keyboards are garbage, but they do look cool, and as far as Apple is concerned, appearance always trumps functionality.

Other phones are just following the trend.

You are not right about this, but your apparent outrage about phone brands is weirdly entertaining anyway. This post typed with an iPhone, for the record.

[Munch]

Originally Posted by Chimera

"Ounce I leaned to let autocorrect do its think, my typing speak probably tripped."

Autocorrect certainly has its moments where you just think "what the fuck?" (or rather "what the duck?"), but it's not like spellcheck. It's using the letters near the letter to you typed as input to guess what word you're trying to type. It wouldn't have made the "ounce", "think", or "speak" mistakes (because they either have a different number of letters, or the different letter isn't anywhere near where you'd have made a keystroke), but it would have certainly let "leaned" and "tripped" go by.

[cochrane]

Originally Posted by MsWhatsit

I've used a physical keyboard on a friend's phone, and didn't really prefer it to the touchscreen keyboard on my iPhone, although obviously part of that might just be that I'm used to the touchscreen, having used it extensively at this point. I do like that the touchscreen "keys" are bigger than the physical keys are.

I really don't find the touchscreen a hindrance. I've used my phone to make multi-paragraph posts on message boards and the like, and while obviously it's quite a bit slower than typing with a full-sized keyboard, I don't think it's significantly slower than using a phone-sized physical keyboard.

I'll lay in bed and read and post on my iPhone using its Wi-fi connection. Time is not really of the essence when posting to a message board, but I've gotten adjusted to the virtual keyboard and can type quite smoothly with my thumbs. One feature of the iPhone that I like is that when you come to the end of a sentence, if you double tap the spacebar, it will automatically put a period after it and capitalize the beginning letter of the next word.

I also have the Dragon Dictation app, which uses voice recognition to type as you speak, but I find it's not always 100% accurate and you sometimes have to do some typing and correcting with it. For example, when I want to insert a comma, it misinterprets the word "comma" as "karma." But all in all, I do find the iPhone's keyboard to be fairly easy to use.

[suranyi]

Originally Posted by Nzinga, Seated

I feel like the physical keyboard is old fashioned. I honestly look at that shit like a rotary or something now. Can't go back to it.

Maybe for your purposes. But could you really type 1000 lines of C++ code with a touchscreen keyboard?

That's the sort of thing I need to do for work.

[pricciar]

I don't care for any of the physical keyboards I have used. This has included Blackberry and Android phones. The buttons are so small and so close together that it is hard to type anything longer than a text message.
The iPhone keyboard, on the other hand, is easy. The letter you are hitting pops up big when you hit it, and once you get the swing of things it is pretty easily to rapidly type things. Autocorrect is sometimes helpful, and pretty easy to click that x to ignore an unwanted word.
One thing I think wasn't available originally that they added is the ability to type into the keyboard in portrait mode. I am really glad they added that. I have a much easier time typing that way.

I am surprised anyone would call it garbage. I can see not liking it because you are used to the physical keyboard. But, garbage? That's ignoring how well it is designed, and how well it works in the real world.

[pricciar]

suranyi:
How often are you using a phone's physical keyboard to type 1000 lines of any type of code?

[Inner Stickler]

If you're typing 1000 lines of c++ code on an iphone, you deserve the aggravation for using the wrong tool.

[The Tao's Revenge]

My Nexus 1 has no keyboard. I wish it did!

It is however a lot thinner than it would be with a keyboard, and since it fits iphone 4 holsters, I suspect Apple just wanted a thinner profile as well.

Although Apple and it's users are the spawns of satan. They eat people's cats, you know.

[China Guy]

There are 5 basic smart phone form factors.
1. big touch screen/virtual keyboard
2. smaller touch screen with a physical keyboard
3. Big touch screen with a keyboard that slide out vertically
4. big touch screen with a keyboard that slides out horizontally
5. not sure if these are made any more but a smart phone that looks like a a regular mobile phone with a mobile phones keyboard and a non touch screen

Apple, with its vertical integration, made the decision that it would sell one type (and arguably the most popular form factor) and one type only because Apple has made their business out of vertical integration with little or no choice.

Me, I personally like form factor 2 because I type much faster with a physical thumb keyboard and I hate the sliders. YMMV.

[Tabby_Cat]

Yeah, you just have to learn to trust the autocorrect function and keep going. Go back for typos later - I basically touch type on the iphone now.


Always proofread, though.

[ZipperJJ]

I'm typing on my iPod Touch right now and it's easy peasy. I think my friends' Android phones have even bigger screens and keyboards.

I just had to give up my RAZR for an LG Cosmos Touch and it's awful. Not only is the touchscreen vastly inferior to the iPod's touchscreen, but the keyboard makes me type like I am pretty much illiterate. The keys are super awkward and small and hard to press, and so far I have not seen autocorrect work once.

On top of being heavy and thick, a keyboard is also another thing to break. Moving parts break. I had to return my first Cosmos Touch 24 hours after I bought it. Dropped it once on a carpeted floor and it ceased to be.

[suranyi]

Originally Posted by pricciar

suranyi:
How often are you using a phone's physical keyboard to type 1000 lines of any type of code?

Oh, you're just talking about a phone? Never mind.

[Lantern]

I think the lack of keyboard is more a matter of design philosophy rather than a hard-headed marketing decision. There are a lot of people who prefer physical keyboards and I suspect Apple would increase its marketshare if it produced an iPhone with a slide-out qwerty like the Droid/Milestone. However Steve Jobs doesn't like buttons so Apple probably won't go there.

Personally I prefer physical keyboards too because they provide better feedback and are easier to use when you are moving. However I don't really type that much on my phone so I will seriously consider a touchscreen only phone next time. It won't be the iPhone though. I definitely prefer the larger size on the Android phones, typically 4 or 4.3 inches instead of the iPhone's 3.5. When I use a touch keyboard I also like the haptic feedback that you get on Android phones. And I prefer the four-button UI on most Android phones compared to the single button on the iPhone.

[Candyman74]

Originally Posted by BigT

No it doesn't. The keyboard can hide away, like it does on quite a few touchscreen phones that do have keyboards. And, yes, they have iPhone sized screens.

Yes, but they don't sell themselves on being the thinnest smartphone in the world.

[Tristan]

A friend of mine said it a few years back, and I have been carrying the torch ever since:

"If you are unable to adapt to touchscreen, the future is going to be very grim for you."

He said this about 10 years ago, and he was right faster than I would have believed.

[Gorsnak]

Originally Posted by Tristan

A friend of mine said it a few years back, and I have been carrying the torch ever since:

"If you are unable to adapt to touchscreen, the future is going to be very grim for you."

He said this about 10 years ago, and he was right faster than I would have believed.

I'm carrying a Torch too, but mine has buttons.

[Freudian Slit]

Isn't that an Onion link?

[LSLGuy]

[Digression]
I presently have a slide-out keyboard HTC WinPhone but most often use the tiny onscreen keyboard with the stylus. My large fingers / thumbs can't seem to find the right keys on the slide-out, nor can I hold the thing steady while thumbing at it. So I peck things out with the phone in one hand & the stylus in the other.

I'm thinking about a new phone, and going with a modern touchscreen keyboard is one option. My dilemma is that I routinely send 1 or 2 paragraph emails / texts where about half the words are specialized acronyms or codes that are not in anybody's spell check / autocorrect. So I have to type it all out full qwrty style, not T9. And ALG and ALH are both completely valid "words", as are dozens of others, so any autocorrect feature is likely to add more errors than it removes.

So ... Any advice on the practicality of an iPhone or other brand touchscreen keyboard?
[/digression]

[Who_me?]

I have a Blackberry Bold as a work phone and an iPhone as my personal phone. I hate typing on the Blackberry.

[Munch]

LSLGuy - on the iPhone, any capitalized word (except at the beginning of a sentence) is autocorrect-immune, including acronyms. That doesn't solve any fat-finger problems with the touchscreen, but will prevent AC frustration.

[MsWhatsit]

The iPhone's autocorrect automatically learns from you. If you backspace over a suggested autocorrection, it will stop correcting that word and in fact will even start suggesting it. My iPhone knows all of my kids' names, some specialized work acronyms, and the word "douchenozzle."

[jasg]

Originally Posted by Merneith

Steve Jobs hates buttons. Really.

This.

A keyboard has moving parts, a perfect machine has no moving parts therefore a phone with a keyboard is imperfect.

[enalzi]

Originally Posted by LSLGuy

[Digression]
I presently have a slide-out keyboard HTC WinPhone but most often use the tiny onscreen keyboard with the stylus. My large fingers / thumbs can't seem to find the right keys on the slide-out, nor can I hold the thing steady while thumbing at it. So I peck things out with the phone in one hand & the stylus in the other.

I'm thinking about a new phone, and going with a modern touchscreen keyboard is one option. My dilemma is that I routinely send 1 or 2 paragraph emails / texts where about half the words are specialized acronyms or codes that are not in anybody's spell check / autocorrect. So I have to type it all out full qwrty style, not T9. And ALG and ALH are both completely valid "words", as are dozens of others, so any autocorrect feature is likely to add more errors than it removes.

So ... Any advice on the practicality of an iPhone or other brand touchscreen keyboard?
[/digression]

You can add custom words to the Android dictionary. Either from the keyboard learning from you, or you can go into the settings to directly add words. For example, my phone recognizes both "enalzi" and "ctabus" (which I use to get bus times).

[Hermitian]

Originally Posted by Merneith

Steve Jobs hates buttons. Really.

Yes, I was shocked this thread needed this many post to get to the right answer.

The answer is because Steve Jobs doesn't want a lot of buttons they cramp his style and they aren't pretty.

You are talking about a man that held onto the concept of a 1-button mouse for a decade too long.

[bouv]

I got the Epic 4G over the Evo because I thought I needed a physical keyboard (and this was AFTER I had an iPhone...I never got used to the iPhone's keyboard, even after almost two years. My thumbs are too fat, I guess...even in landscape mode.)

But after about five minutes with Swype, I was blwon away. Not having to even lift up my fingers is amazing. It has a small learning curve, but it's fantastic otherwise. It learns words, so when you just type one in letter by letter, you can swype it next time and it will have it as a suggestion.

It's only downside is words like or/our, your/you're, etc...words tghat tend to stay all or mostly in one row of letters, but in those cases, since they are so short, it's just as fast to just type them in.

[LSLGuy]

Originally Posted by MsWhatsit

...
My iPhone knows all of my kids' names, some specialized work acronyms, and the word "douchenozzle."

Well that does it then. Any phone which knows douchenozzle gets the nod from me. Thanks!!! Decision made. I knew I could count on the Dope.