vB Easy Archive - Can QWERTY keyboards get any smaller?

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Can QWERTY keyboards get any smaller?
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Posted by: tmccartney

Do you think qwerty-based devices are as small as they can get, or will manufacturers keep pushing the envelope to find that sweet spot between the convenience of qwerty and consumers' desire for a small form factor? My ideal phone would be something the size of my Cingular 3125 with a keyboard.

Posted by: mbranscum

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmccartney

Do you think qwerty-based devices are as small as they can get... My ideal phone would be something the size of my Cingular 3125 with a keyboard.

Don't think that will happen.

Posted by: JMBrown

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmccartney

Do you think qwerty-based devices are as small as they can get, or will manufacturers keep pushing the envelope to find that sweet spot between the convenience of qwerty and consumers' desire for a small form factor? My ideal phone would be something the size of my Cingular 3125 with a keyboard.

Sure. In theory, anything can be made smaller; however, if phone qwerty's were to get much smaller, they would be entirely too small for use, so don't expect to see anything too much smaller than, say, a Treo or Blackjack keyboard.

Posted by: crispeto

Well take a look at the Dash keyboard. I don't think I'd want it much smaller than that and yet I don't have any problems using it.

Posted by: LIVEFRMNYC

I think they will get Thinner, maybe Razr thin. Like the Blackjack.

But QWERTY means QWERTY. So I don't see a huge decrease in size

There are very small text keyboard, but they are not QWERTY.

I like the Cingular 8525

Posted by: mobilegruven

Look at the Blackberry Pearl. They cleverly reduced the physical size of their keyboard using SureType, which has 2 characters on each key.... Kind of hybrid between QWERTY and T9.

My guess is the keyboard physical limitation is pretty much at its limits... perhaps voice recognition will be the primary way we provide input to SmartDevices next? Maybe a dedicated Voice Processing Unit??

How about a nod and wink sensor which uses the camera? ;*)