Loren at Incremental Blogger did a fun test. At the end of the recent Apple iPhone keyboard demo you see someone (that guy with the flappy arms I assume) typing two-thumbed on an iPhone. It looks really nice. Fast. Loren tried keeping up with an on-screen keyboard and couldn’t quite do it. The demo shows the sentence “I know a great place a couple blocks away. I will make a reservation for three.” being typed in 22 seconds. That’s a nice 218 characters per minute. I couldn’t resist having a go on the Everun.
My first attempt was 33 seconds. Not so good but consider that was after 36 hours of having the device and without any word predictive logic. I was also holding the device unlike in the demo where it seems to be fixed. Lets also assume that this marketing video is only showing the best take. After 5 minutes, my best take was 26 seconds. it doesn’t look like I’m going to get any faster. If you take into consideration that the video is likely to be a ‘good case’ example and that the device is not being held, I think you can say that the iPhone also hits around 50% of normal typing speed. Its certainly faster than any other on-screen method I’ve tried(other ultra mobile PC device typing rates here.)
But let me highlight a problem with the iPhone and its on screen keyboard. It might be fast but it takes 40% of the screen space. Its going to be no good for Internet work. Lets ignore the fact that its got no mobile Internet connectivity (WiFi is only good for multiple, pre-configured, fixed locations and EDGE is way too slow) you get only 320 pixels wide and 480 high. It might be enough with the nice auto zooming features but if you ever want to input text into a web site (for example if you’re using an Internet based application or even just entering a forum post or webmail email) you’re going to lose something like 200 pixels from the bottom leaving you with a 320×280 screen. For me, that’s way short of the FIE. Now I’m not saying it should be possible because the iPhone is for consumers – people that read, listen and watch. They generally won’t be interacting with websites. I’m a slightly different mobile Internet user. Its a two-way process with me and a device that’s almost the FIE is no good at all for me. I need the FIE and if I can’t get it on a smartphone, (You cant – look at this) then I’ll stay with my two device strategy. Mini 3G 320×240 feature phone and x86-based UMPC.
