While it has been simmering below the surface since Apple introduced the “virtual” keyboard on the iPhone, the debate over having a physical vs virtual keyboard is getting almost as intense as the Mac vs. PC wars. The new Palm Pre only adds to the discussion.
Two blogs that I read quite often, John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame and Tim Bray of Sun, are picking up the debate. While it’s undoubtedly a matter of personal preference and usage style, there’s one important point in the virtual camps favor – physical keyboards break.
In the past 2 days I’ve had 2 people (one a co-worker and the other my daughter) remark on one aspect of the physical keyboard debate that I had not considered. What happens when a mobile keyboard breaks? My daughter has a LG UX260 that has a slide out keyboard. According to her, it doesn’t work or work well. It’s out of warranty so I’m not replacing it until the contract is up so she’s a bit SOL at the moment. My co-worker’s girlfriend has a BlackBerry and keys stopped working on it. It was under warranty but the replacement took over a week to get there.
I think you can see my though process here: The virtual keyboard in my iPod Touch will never stop working unless the iPhone OS or the touch screen stop working. So in the debate of physical vs virtual don’t forget to factor in keyboard wear and tear.
