PCWorld had an article which they called A Not-Very-Useful iPhone Keyboard Study which was linked to PalmAddicts as Typing on the iPhone is slower than other mobile devices.
But what did the study prove?
Just about nothing.
People who had never used the iPhone before made a lot of mistakes.
Who does this surprise?
Even Apple has said (and many, many, many others have echoed) that you need to give it a week to get used to the iPhone keyboard.
They also suggest that you start with one hand holding and one hand typing the phone. As you get more used to it, you can move to two. This has been my experience.
What’s the biggest difference between the iPhone and my Treo?
Typing on the iPhone gets better over time. It learns how I type and makes suggestions, most of which correct even significant typos. After 2 years with a Treo, I was still making mistakes, and it never learned.
So which is slower?
The PCWorld article concluded:
(quote)
Maybe the keyboard is neither a big pro (as Apple would want us to believe) or a significant con (as many people fear, and the User Centric survey might suggest), but simply a different way of doing things with advantages and disadvantages that ultimately balance out.
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Treo users ought to be mindful of throwing any stones when talking about the usability of the keyboard, especially considering the form factor for the Centro (next Treo):
(quote)
The Centro has possibly the tiniest QWERTY keyboard I've ever seen. It's infinitesimal: it's actually impossible to type on this thing with two thumbs. The keys on the model I tried were little clear rubbery bumps, below a cursor pad and the usual Palm OS quick application buttons. Seeing me get frustrated trying to puzzle out letters on this tiny thing, a Sprint rep stepped in to say that it was for the "youth market" - in other words, kids with nimble fingers and sharp eyes to read the small screen. On the other hand, it'll fend off the argument about Treos being chunky, that's for sure. (Source: Gearlog)
(endquote)
Here’s another important note. Last week I figured out how to reboot my iPhone. I’d been using it for 6 weeks, and hadn’t turned it off, hadn’t rebooted it, hadn’t had the phone crash on me (I’ve had isolated crashes with the Mail program and Safari, but not the phone itself.)
While the iPhone doesn’t have the power of a 3rd party program like Agendus, the calendar application is rock solid. The phone OS is rock solid. Browsing is a joy, compared to Blazer which someone described as being worse than fondue forks in the eyes. (I could never get Opera Mini to work on my Treo 650 without locking up or crashing, so I can’t say how it would compare.)
Without a doubt, choosing between a Treo and an iPhone is deciding which trade-offs are better for you. I thought I’d miss the 3rd party selection of apps that I enjoyed on the Treo (and I do miss Tetris!) but I’ve used the web more because of how much better MobileSafari works. I’ve used email more because even though Chatteremail was great with its IMAP idle/push, the iPhone sees all of my IMAP mailboxes and lets me switch between them easily without having to go through and set them all up one by one.
I’ve watched more videos and listened to more podcasts, because it works more easily than the Treo did. But the best part by far is the flawless syncing of contacts, calendar items, bookmarks (having the same set of bookmarks on my phone and computer is amazingly helpful).
Choose what works for you.