When Apple announced their game-changing iPhone in 2007 there was immediate concern over their choice of a touch-screen based keyboard.
While somewhat inconvenient as it tended to take up 40% of the screen real estate when in use, it was explained away as a powerful future proofing opportunity to developers.
Unrestricted by a physical keyboard designers would be free to innovate and customize the keyboard to best fit their purpose.
Sounds good. But where are the custom keyboards? I can’t remember ever seeing one.
Most developers have stuck with the standard set-up instead of a custom keyboard layout as far as I’ve seen. Something that would have been completely possible with a physical keyboard naturally.
Let’s be honest. The virtual keyboard has always been about sacrificing function for design. Otherwise I’d be complaining about having dozens of virtual keyboards to learn instead of complaining about Apple’s singular creation that helps the phone look pretty but can be frustrating as heck to use.
Hey Apple. We’re adults. We can handle the truth. This virtual keyboard continues to be an unnecessary struggle just so the phone can be 1/5″ thinner. Food for thought if you’re actually developing a touch screen tablet. Just sayin’…
(written on an iPhone – with significant effort)
