Qwerty beats touch for smart phone fans

Qwerty keyboards find favour with the majority of silicon.com readers for their PDAs and smart phones but interest in touchscreen interfaces is not far behind.

While touchscreen tech on PDAs is not a new innovation, the 2007 entry of Mac-maker Apple into the mobile market breathed new life into the technology, with its touchscreen iPhone quickly leading to a flood of other touch phones into the marketplace.

Touchscreen tech is also making waves beyond the world of smart phones - with the next iteration of Microsoft's Windows OS slated to have optional touchscreen controls. The next generation of the $100 laptop - a project aiming to put low-cost laptops in the hands of children in the developing world - has also made a transition from keyboard to touchscreen interface. And Nintendo's popular DS handheld games console has a touchscreen and stylus.

While more than half (59 per cent) of respondents to the latest silicon.com reader poll prefer a traditional keyboard on their smart phone, a touchscreen was still seen as a better bet for a substantial chunk (41 per cent) - suggesting iPhone-style interfaces are not as unpopular with professionals as you might imagine.

Speaking to silicon.com last month, co-CEO of BlackBerry-maker RIM, Mike Lazaridis, claimed Qwerty keyboards on mobiles are only going to get more important as smart phone use ramps up.

He told silicon.com that when consumers are shopping for phones and want to be able to use applications such as Facebook, instant messaging and email "they're walking out with a [BlackBerry] Curve or a Pearl because they're the best devices for doing those kinds of activities. And so what is the defining factor? The keyboard."

A recent silicon.com's CIO Jury seems to back up this view - with the Jury coming out in favour of Qwerty - by a two-thirds majority.

The silicon.com reader poll was based on the responses of more than 350 silicon.com readers.