Early adoptors and trend watchers might have noticed a trend has started to develop and is gathering momentum. The newest consumer electronics do not have a keyboard for the user to input data with. Notebooks, Mobile phones and GPS’s have started to be more focused on touch screens and graphical user interfaces (GUI). This prompted me to think whether the traditional keyboard may become redundant?
I tend to believe that the trend was started with the iPod from Apple which required the user to interact with the now common click wheel. There are multiple products that do not feature a keyboard: the BlackBerry Storm, HTC Hero, Apple iPhone and the Apple iPad. The adoption of the iPad (image below) can be seen as a good barometer for the touch screen keyboard. How users review/perceive the usability of the bigger keyboard, might see other manufacturers go to touch screens for their products (HP has a Slate in production).
This potentially may be the case for recreational internet users who check email and do browsing but not for power users. A colleague made the point that point of sale registers that use touch screen technology, have been in existence for a number of years and has not gotten traction yet. The keyboard is still used by writers and programmers who need to press multiple characters repeatedly.
I admit that I have jumped to a conclusion about keyboards without considering users who require a keyboard. I sense the QWERTY keyboard is facing an onslaught from manufacturers who target casual/recreational users. So consider maybe taking a photo of a keyboard and storing it because the grandchildren might someday wonder what keyboards were.
