iPhone: Eat Up Martha?
by John Paczkowski
Posted on June 14, 2007 at 10:30 AM PT
Once you actually use this magical display there’s no going back. We actually think we have a better keyboard. It takes a few days of getting used to, but I bet you dinner that after a few days of using it you’ll be convinced. It takes a week–you have to learn how to trust it. When you learn how to trust it, you’ll fly. And we can use that physical space for other things where you don’t need a keyboard–we can add new applications… it provides incredible flexibility, and you don’t take up half the space of this thing with a physical keyboard.”
–Apple CEO Steve Jobs, All Things Digital 5
At our All Things Digital conference last month, Apple CEO Steve Jobs claimed that no one on Apple’s design team questioned the forthcoming iPhone’s lack of a physical keyboard. Of course, the team members have presumably spent enough time with the device to feel comfortable with it. Not so the New York Times, which has dubbed the onscreen keyboard Apple’s “billion-dollar gamble,” apparently without even using it.
And to be sure, it may be just that. Text entry on portable devices has always been a thorny matter. Apple knows this all too well, having watched in horror as its Newton MessagePad became a commercial failure, mercilessly tarred and feathered for its handwriting recognition problems.
Is the company setting itself up for another such scenario with the iPhone’s keyboard? “The tactile feedback of a mechanical keyboard is a pretty important aspect of human interaction,” Bill Moggridge, a founder of industrial design outfit Ideo, told the Times. “If you take that away you tend to be very insecure.”
I suppose. But isn’t it possible that Apple’s implementation of the iPhone’s onscreen keyboard might be well-done enough to allay those anxieties? Early impressions from some folks who’ve actually played with the device suggest this may be the case. “I think the iPhone’s virtual keyboard is a huge improvement over the mechanical thumbpads found on the Treo and any other smart phones of its size,” Chicago Sun Times columnist Andy Ihnatko wrote in January after spending 45 minutes with the device. “The buttons are significantly larger, you don’t have to hit them dead-center, you lightly tap them instead of punching them down, and the software is smart enough to know that you meant to type ‘Tuesday’ instead of ‘Tudsday.’ After 30 seconds, I was already typing faster with the iPhone than I ever have with any other phone. I suspect that true email demons will need to adapt to the lack of tactile feedback, though.”
Comments
I wonder if a small keyboard can be attached. I have been looking at the PSP, the Nokia N800 also and think that they also might be benefited from with a micro keyboard. Note: The PSP is “doubly” limited in that it does not even have a touch screen.
Posted by Mike Liveright at June 14th, 2007 at 7:41 pmI don’t think it will be a problem for most people. I have a little Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS and this unit has a touch screen. It’s very easy to use and the only problem I have in using the screen to input info is the stupid software uses an ABCDE format instead of a normal QWERTY keyboard format. I also think the letter enlarging when you type it is also a great idea because you don’t have to second guess whether or not you’ve hit the right one.
I guess we’ll all find out one way or the other in a couple weeks.
Hal
Posted by Hal Summers at June 14th, 2007 at 10:56 pm