Microsoft Courier and Apple iPad to Terminate Keyboards
Microsoft is all set to release the Microsoft Courier this year to give competition to the much awaited Apple iPad. With latest inventions such as these hitting the stores 
this year, what does the future has for keyboards?
Keyboards have helped computer users from so many years and now all of a sudden, they may no longer be needed. The QWERTY keyboard was first introduced in 1874, four years after the arrival of commercial typewriters. Since that year, keyboards have been major tools for an office work. It has done its deed for a long time but it may not be able to do so for much longer. Everything now is based on “touch”. Apple iPad is “touch”, no keyboard of any sort. Even Microsoft’s Courier resembles to a booklet and not to a tablet. It uses pen interface and handwriting recognition. Apart from these two, many more gadgets are being launched, without a keyboard interface.
3 Responses
Maybe this will encourage parents and educators to put some focus back on the importance of legible handwriting. How many high school students – to say nothing of those in middle school – still form letters that look like they should have been written in crayon? And that’s on paper! Touch screens are quite strange to write on with no physical resistance between the pen and the surface.
Regardless, I’m so excited for the Courier!
I like the idea, and I agree that, to an extent, tablets will diminish the use of keyboards. But they will never, ever, ever replace keyboards for the mere reason that most people find that it’s faster to type than to handwrite. Desktops will always have keyboards. Perhaps we could get ride of them for laptops, but if you’re writing a long essay or report, you probably do not want to handwrite the whole thing. Typing is faster to do, and hurts your hands less [if you do it properly >.>]. That being said, the Courier is promising and doesn’t need the keyboard in most cases, as it’s supposed to be a mobile device.
For people working with documents (presumably a good chunk of the market) keyboards are essential. I type at around 80 words/min, which is fairly common. I’d need to be Data (you know, the sad face on Enterprise), to match that by handwriting.