EstablishedKeys & Batteries
John Gruber over at Daring Fireball has posted an insightful piece on mobile phone keyboards.
John recognizes the key decision that Apple makes in the design of their products:
Apple tries to make things that many people love, not things that all people like. The key is that they’re not afraid of the staunch criticism, and often outright derision, that comes with breaking conventions.
This is brought up in reference to not only the soft keyboards but also the increasing use of sealed batteries that Apple is using across its iPod, iPhone, and Macbook lines.
To me the greater point is that Apple deeply believes in products devoid of moving parts or even the ability to detect that they are made out of individual component pieces. This benefits Apple is several ways. Not only does this foster products that have a level of refinement above most competitors but it also decreases the number of mechanical failures that are inherent to moving parts while also removing the costs in designing and assembling products with this added complexity.
The future, I believe, is going to be made of software keyboards. It simply offers more flexibility. A single device can be deployed worldwide with software keyboards automatically displaying the appropriate format for the user’s language.
Are soft keyboards completely ideal? Probably not. But they offer more pros (flexibility) than cons (no touch typing) when used in low typing applications. Much like the qwerty keyboard format that grew from the limitations of typewriter technology, soft keyboards are not perfect but they are better than any other option and we can only build upon the best we have at the time.
I predict that Apple will ship the first glass keyboard for desktop use. This may not be for a while but it will happen. Simply because it will allow more people to have more flexibility in their interaction with the computer which will allow more multitouch editing features on the mac. People who do a lot of typing will stick with keys and that’s fine. But people who do more with photos and video and the web will find a lot to like.