Are Physical Keyboards a Dying Breed?

[Qbnkelt]

Originally Posted by sleepngbear

Nice speech Qubie, and of course spot-on as usual. But if this guy hasn't gotten off his insipid antiquated-keyboard kick by now, he never will. I still cannot fathom why anyone who has such a vendetta against a brand's bread and butter would be spreading his animus on a forum dedicated to that brand; can you? (Hint: Ignore can be your friend.)

BTW, if I ever do get tired of BB, a couple of those primitive landscape sliders on the dreambloggers page look sweeeeeet ... as long as they haven't stopped making them by then. Click to view quoted image

Agreed. I always wonder about that. I simply don't go regularly go into forums whose products I don't care for. I honesty haven't visited the Windows forum since the Dell Lightning was announced (and apparently never released?) and I don't go into the iPhone forum since I was completely underwhelmed by the iP4S. I used to visit the Android foruk on my Android hating days but then stopped when I realised I was giving them much too much energy. Then I liked Android and have started going there, although infrequently.

Like going to the Honda Element forum to go rave about the Toyota Rav4...why would you??? Unless, of course, to troll....

Oooops....could it be???? Do you think...??????

[deRusett]

Originally Posted by Qbnkelt

Absolutely incorrect.

I can type in Spanish and French. All I have to do is type on the letter and use the trackpad to select whichever character I need.

No problem at all. No more of a nightmare than producing pc/laptop keyboards....actually, easier....less of a hassle for me to type a special Spanish character or a French accent on my BB than on my laptop.

There are people who simply PREFER keyboards. Regardless of age. Don't throw that one in there.

I would much rather type a message on my 9930 than my Skyrocket. It's a preference.

While the Poster you quoted used dumb examples as most of those languages use the Roman/Latin Alphabet which means we can type them easily on the Blackberry, Asian and Middle eastern languages DO work better for touchscreen devices since they have far more letters than we have in the Roman/Latin Alphabet.

I do completely agree the Keyboard is a preference thing,
I equated it in another post in this thread to floors.
The Touchscreen is a concrete floor, works great as a floor and is very versatile,
The Keypad is a carpeted floor, works great, slightly less versatile, but for extended standing it is far more comfortable

[Qbnkelt]

Originally Posted by tmelon

The Droid 4 is basically the only new upper class Android with a keyboard. All the rest of new Androids are pure touchscreen.




Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk

The decision of what is an upper class device can vary depending on the consumer. The Droid Pro was designed and released as a business oriented BB killer. And although I don't like a horizontal slider I see an awful lot of people using them, both Android and Windows. I really don't know anything about Nokia devices, but I believe that some do have keyboards.

I choose my Skyrocket almost interchangeably with my 9930, but I invariably choose my 9930 when I require precision.

[sleepngbear]

Originally Posted by tmelon

The Droid 4 is basically the only new upper class Android with a keyboard. All the rest of new Androids are pure touchscreen.




Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk

The point is that they make at least one, as do most other manufacturers. They wouldn't do that if they didn't think there were some kind of a market for them. And I'd suggest that they all probably know a little bit more about that market than 99% of the armchair CEO's here.

[Qbnkelt]

Originally Posted by deRusett

While the Poster you quoted used dumb examples as most of those languages use the Roman/Latin Alphabet which means we can type them easily on the Blackberry, Asian and Middle eastern languages DO work better for touchscreen devices since they have far more letters than we have in the Roman/Latin Alphabet.

I do completely agree the Keyboard is a preference thing,
I equated it in another post in this thread to floors.
The Touchscreen is a concrete floor, works great as a floor and is very versatile,
The Keypad is a carpeted floor, works great, slightly less versatile, but for extended standing it is far more comfortable

Yes, arguably it is easier to use a touchscreen device for non-Western languages. But even on a Western device all that is required is to download the language pack.

And I absolutely agree with your analogy of a cement/carpeted floor. I think that covers it exactly. i much prefer the feel of a keyboard to the haptic feedback of my Android devices.

[deRusett]

Originally Posted by Qbnkelt

Yes, arguably it is easier to use a touchscreen device for non-Western languages. But even on a Western device all that is required is to download the language pack.

And I absolutely agree with your analogy of a cement/carpeted floor. I think that covers it exactly. i much prefer the feel of a keyboard to the haptic feedback of my Android devices.

While the language pack gives you the characters, to type, you are still faced with the "western" characters on the keyboard, IF you are a touch typist this is fine, but not being able to look at the keys to find that key you are looking for makes the physical keyboard inferior.

I'm a Keyboard lover, but I do see SOME places where touchscreens can have an advantage, though I would suffer through figuring out which key maps to what over using a touchscreen full time

[xandermac]

In my opinion a touchscreen keyboard is more versatile whereas a portrait physical keyboard is FAR easier to use. That's about it really.

Having said that, I find physical landscape keyboards (as on the G2) to be more of a PITA than a virtual keyboard. I suppose in the end it's personal preference.

If I could get this 4s with a portrait slider blackberry type keyboard I would jump all over it. That perfect device (for me) could quite possibly end up being a BB10 device.

Sent from my iPhone4s using Tapatalk

[VanCity778]

I have a big set of mitts. I'm all thumbs when it comes to a touch screen KB. That's one of the reasons why i own a BB.

[Buellrunner]

This entire reply was dictated into my phone. Perhaps the future is not in touch screen or in physical keyboard. I believe that most of the input that will take place in future devices will be in voice recognition dictation. Keyboard versus touchscreen will become far less of a debate. The quality of the software and the hardware in the devices that lead to an accurate dictation experience will probably be what we are debating about in the future.

To be honest, I hope that the future is bright for all of the competitors out there. There are really only about four maybe five good platforms out there today. To lose any of them would be bad....

[ADozenEggs@aol.com]

Originally Posted by Buellrunner

This entire reply was dictated into my phone. Perhaps the future is not in touch screen or in physical keyboard. I believe that most of the input that will take place in future devices will be in voice recognition dictation. Keyboard versus touchscreen will become far less of a debate. The quality of the software and the hardware in the devices that lead to an accurate dictation experience will probably be what we are debating about in the future.

To be honest, I hope that the future is bright for all of the competitors out there. There are really only about four maybe five good platforms out there today. To lose any of them would be bad....

Well said. But then some will still want what they had. They won't like dictation because "I don't want people to hear what I'm saying." Touchscreen or Physical all things progress.

Some find it hard to let go, even when things become obsolete.

It's more about the way the brain is wired than any actual choice.

[13echo4]

Originally Posted by ADozenEggs@aol.com

Well said. But then some will still want what they had. They won't like dictation because "I don't want people to hear what I'm saying." Touchscreen or Physical all things progress.

Some find it hard to let go, even when things become obsolete.

It's more about the way the brain is wired than any actual choice.

Dictation just isn't goin to work at a concert, movie, restrant, or even in a libary. Some of us in the world cansee outside the box and understand how things work.

[Qbnkelt]

Originally Posted by 13echo4

Dictation just isn't goin to work at a concert, movie, restrant, or even in a libary. Some of us in the world cansee outside the box and understand how things work.

LOL!!!! I really don't want to hear someone's sextexting on the train next to me

Originally Posted by ADozenEggs@aol.com

Well said. But then some will still want what they had. They won't like dictation because "I don't want people to hear what I'm saying." Touchscreen or Physical all things progress.

Some find it hard to let go, even when things become obsolete.

It's more about the way the brain is wired than any actual choice.

Some of us don't want to let go of something that works for us better than something else. Why would anyone give up something that works over something that works for someone else? If I have a Skyrocket and I prefer to type on a 9930, why would I give up my 9930 for something that does not work better for me????? That's ridiculous.

If I've tasted Pepsi and I prefer it over Coke, why should I order Coke because the person I'm with prefers it????? That's bowing to artificial pressure. I don't do that. Having a Skyrocket and a 9930 I can absolutely say that a 9930 is my preferred input method. Why would I let it go? Who says it's obsolete? A physical keyboard will be obsolete for me the day I lose all my fingers.

[ADozenEggs@aol.com]

Originally Posted by 13echo4

Dictation just isn't goin to work at a concert, movie, restrant, or even in a libary. Some of us in the world cansee outside the box and understand how things work.

Interesting. What did people at concerts, movies(don't you see those pre-film announcements about being courteous to others and put your phone away?) and "restaurants" do before?

They "unplugged" and enjoyed the music, the film or their meal.

You state as if all of the tech has been around for years and people have already grown so accustomed to it that we'd all go bonkers if we were unplugged for even an hour.

How would the populace react to a major blackout like the one we had here in NY several years ago?

Or the long predicted solar flare that will play havoc with our satellites and communication systems.

Unplug for a period and you'll quickly realize that everything will be just fine.

[Qbnkelt]

Originally Posted by ADozenEggs@aol.com

Interesting. What did people at concerts, movies(don't you see those pre-film announcements about being courteous to others and put your phone away?) and "restaurants" do before?

They "unplugged" and enjoyed the music, the film or their meal.

You state as if all of the tech has been around for years and people have already grown so accustomed to it that we'd all go bonkers if we were unplugged for even an hour.

How would the populace react to a major blackout like the one we had here in NY several years ago?

Or the long predicted solar flare that will play havoc with our satellites and communication systems.

Unplug for a period and you'll quickly realize that everything will be just fine.

That is an entirely different situation. In this instance you're discussing the unavailability of communication. Echo and I are discussing a preferred form of input when discretion is necessary given specific surroundings.
I can, and do, text and email and BBM in situations where I must be discreet. In certain situations, you would not want to be heard but would still want to communicate. So a keyboard, be it virtual or physical, would be necessary.

And again, I must ask....what is this insistence on taking choice out? Why must physical keyboards be considered obsolete simply because certain consumers prefer them?

It's *choice.* It's a good thing.

[lak611]

Originally Posted by deRusett

While the language pack gives you the characters, to type, you are still faced with the "western" characters on the keyboard, IF you are a touch typist this is fine, but not being able to look at the keys to find that key you are looking for makes the physical keyboard inferior.

I'm a Keyboard lover, but I do see SOME places where touchscreens can have an advantage, though I would suffer through figuring out which key maps to what over using a touchscreen full time

I was thinking exactly the same thing when I read the thread. Your post is spot-on.