I’ve long argued the need for buttons but also respect the unique value that touch centric devices bring to user experience. It’s a confusing paradox where I’ve vowed to never own another phone without a touchscreen - but still rely quite heavily on hardware buttons to drive the experience.
Well, over the last week gadget blogs have been buzzing about two new toys coming to market: the LG Versa phone and the Touch Book computer. The beauty and innovation behind these eye-catching devices being that the keyboard detaches leaving a touchscreen slate.
The detachable form factor gives consumers the best of both worlds: a rich touch experience in lightweight and portable hardware, but an optional keyboard for typing/messaging/whatnot. This makes perfect sense to me because touchscreen keyboards just aren’t good enough for real work. They aren’t. But often times all you’ll need is a pretty screen with easy scrolling options and the inherent fun in navigating with your finger.
Personally, I would really appreciate this form factor. On my cellphone I don’t find the need to use the keyboard often - when browsing the mobile web it’s easy to pull up the onscreen keyboard to search things like “John Cusack films” in a few seconds - to learn that he had 18 years of awesomeness (and eight recent years of embarrassment). But when I need to write an email or even a longer text message - I desperately need keys. Whenever I try to write an email with my onscreen keyboard I find myself being short and snippy - and never as coherent as I should be. And I totally blame the onscreen keyboard for that!
Similarly, when browsing the web on a laptop - I don’t really need the keyboard - it just gets in the way (related note: have you ever browsed through Google reader with a touchscreen? It’s delightful, I promise you). But as soon as I’m ready to actually do something functional - I simply must have tactile reinforcement.
So think that the detachable form factor will gain popularity over the next few years and will become more common in both phones and computers. A bright clean touch surface combined with a hardware keyboard makes a great device - plus, you give the two an option to separate and you have two perfect devices in one.
March 6th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Did you get your keyboard fixed on your phone b/c it sounds like you need it! I completely agree though - I can’t live without an actual keyboard. I don’t even have the patience when I am writing a short text message to try and use the onscreen keyboard. Being able to detach the keyboard is definitely a great idea though b/c you’re right….when perusing the crappy movies Cusack has done in the past 8 years….you don’t really need a keyboard. I’ll be interested to see how these devices pan out.