I'm not sure if you're questions and statements are directed at me or 
not since I agree with what you're saying. The original poster said that 
if you were a querty keyboard user on your desktop system then you were 
an antique. I don't think the article referred to supports that 
statement, since the article is directed at the mobile space, and I 
don't agree with that statement myself either. I agree that mobile 
platforms are going the way of the touch screen. I'm one of those blind 
people who don't take my bluetooth keyboard with me when I'm out and 
about. I use it with my iPhone when I'm going to be sitting in a car for 
a while, on a plane or in a hotel room.

I don't think this means that keyboards are going away any time soon 
though. Keyboards will still be used on the desktop by content 
providers. This doesn't mean that there won't be content providers using 
their tablet without a bluetooth keyboard. It just means that there will 
be enough people who prefer using a keyboard to type in source code, 
articles and so on that the operating systems will still support this 
input method and companies will still be selling keyboards.

I would assume that the number of bluetooth keyboards being sold is less 
than that of mobile devices (smart phones and tablets), but again, that 
doesn't mean that keyboards will be disappearing over night. As I said 
above, I think there is still a significant market for bluetooth 
keyboards, otherwise companies wouldn't be investing the effort to 
manufacture and sell them.

It's also true that tablets and mobile devices in general are outselling 
laptops and desktops, but when you take a tablet and add a keyboard and 
a monitor to use it on your desktop, then it's relevant whether you call 
it a laptop or a tablet. I know it's anecdotal, but I read a blog 
article from someone at a computer conference, and originally he said 
more people were bringing their tablets than their laptops, but then he 
noticed that virtually everyone was using a bluetooth keyboard with 
their tablets when taking notes in sessions, so he concluded this was no 
different than taking their laptops.

Finally, companies like Microsoft and Canonical are investing a lot in 
so called conversion devices. This is a device that has a touch screen 
when it's mobile but docks with a keyboard and monitor when it's 
stationary. They run the same OS, and you can seamlessly transition from 
using the touch screen to using your keyboard. I don't think Microsoft 
and Canonical would be investing in these devices and technologies if 
there was no data to support the fact that people still like using 
keyboards and a system on their desktop for some tasks.

On 08/20/2013 05:30 PM, David Chittenden wrote:
> Yes, and touch-screen tablets (iPad and Android) are rapidly catching up with laptop sales.
>
> As to your statement about bluetooth keyboard utilisation, I would be interested in knowing how many bluetooth keyboards are being sold compared with how many touchscreen devices. Is the number of keyboards more, less, or equivalent? If more or equivalent, the supposition that the majority of people are merely becoming modular may be supportable. However, this would then require studying a random sampling of these people to ascertain if they are, indeed, utilising their bluetooth keyboard when working with their touchscreen mobile devices. On the blindness-focused mobile device listserves I monitor, some people report they do not actually take bluetooth keyboards with them when out and about. They only utilise such when they are stationary. Other people report that they utilise the bluetooth keyboard whenever they use their mobile devices.
>
> Given what I have observed from many sighted people I know, and what I have read in a few studies on this particular aspect, the majority of sighted people do not utilise keyboards with their mobile touchscreen devices whilst out and about. In fact, all but one of the sighted people I know who purchased bluetooth keyboards for their touchscreen smartphones or tablets no longer use the bluetooth keyboards. Note: this is just people I have asked, is not a random sampling of any population, so is not indicative of any overall trends regarding average preferences. That said, I suspect it is more accurate than the belief that sighted people are, and will continue, preferring tactile buttons for data entry.
>
> As I stated in a previous message, anyone who has citation of any rigorous, peer-reviewed academic or scientific studies which demonstrate differently, please forward me the citation information.
>
> David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> Mobile: +64 21 2288 288
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 21/08/2013, at 9:27, Christopher Chaltain <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> I just have two thoughts on this article. First, the iPhone had a lot more going for it over the Blackberry than just the fact that it used a touch screen. Second, this article focuses on the mobile platform. I don't see anything in this article that says keyboards for laptops and desktop computers are going away. There's obviously a lot of good reasons to go with a touch screen interface on a mobile platform and devices where you're primarily consuming content. I don't see programmers, authors, and other content generators giving up their keyboards any time soon. Also, even though mobile devices are lacking keyboards, there's quite a market in providing bluetooth keyboards for such devices.
>>
>> On 08/20/2013 04:12 PM, David Hilbert Poehlman wrote:
>>> well, with sp[eech recognition and other interactivity improving, it certainly brings the price down to offer devices with few to no moving parts.  I don’t think anyone is asking for any opinions but it is the way it is going so best solve its issues before we have to.
>>>
>>> On Aug 20, 2013, at 5:06 PM, Bill Pasco <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>> And as usual, who is asking our opinions. I mean everyone's opinions not
>>> just blind folks. Blind people aren't the only group unhappy about the
>>> removal of anything resembling a button.
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
>>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of ted chittenden
>>> Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 1:47 PM
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>> Subject: [VICUG-L] NPR.org Text-Only : The End Of Buttons: The New
>>> Gesture-Control Era
>>>
>>> Hi to all.
>>>
>>> While the story below is for a general audience, its implications for blind
>>> accessibility aren't hard to miss. In a nutshell, if you're like me and use
>>> a desktop system with a QWERTY keyboard, you're ancient history. If you use
>>> a Blackberry with lots of buttons, you're passé (I'm not sure how to do that
>>> accented e). But if you're an Apple user using hand gestures or if you use
>>> DragonSpeak with voice commands, welcome to the future!
>>>
>>> And yes, an audio version of this story is available at the link below.
>>> --
>>> Ted Chittenden
>>>
>>> Every story has at least two sides if not more.
>>> ----
>>> http://thin.npr.org/s.php?sId=213469564&rId=2&x=1
>>>
>>> By Elise Hu
>>>
>>> All Things Considered, August 19, 2013 · Last week, BlackBerry put up a
>>> for-sale sign after many years of decline. The once revolutionary BlackBerry
>>> was the first smartphone addiction for so many Americans — you were
>>> connected all the time! — and even when iPhone ushered in a slimmer,
>>> sleeker, faster era, a few holdouts (many on Capitol Hill) continued to
>>> stubbornly keep a BlackBerry in their pockets.
>>>
>>> But looking back, it's clear BlackBerry devices began to lose consumers more
>>> than half a decade ago. That's when the iPhone's touch screen became the
>>> user interface de rigueur and the Blackberry, with its keyboard and buttons,
>>> became almost instantly outdated. Hemispheres Magazine takes note:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "Computers, which started as banks of switches, sprouted keyboards (banks of
>>> buttons with letters on them). We used buttons to select television shows to
>>> watch and pushed buttons to order soft drinks from vending machines. Then
>>> came the BlackBerry, which bristled with buttons.
>>>
>>> "And then, with the iPhone, everything changed. As a descendant of both the
>>> computer and the phone, Apple's superproduct had a big button at the bottom,
>>> plus a switch at the top and some tiny little controls. You could even argue
>>> that the entire screen is a button of sorts. The point, though, is that we
>>> didn't need to rely on just buttons anymore; we could tap, drag and pinch to
>>> operate the phone. The moment Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld 2007 and
>>> brandished his nifty little device, the button was on notice. Fingers, with
>>> touchscreens, became the new buttons."
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> So it goes with technology. The switch gave way to the button, the button
>>> gave way to a touch screen, and soon, touching screens may seem old-school:
>>> Gesture and voice control are the "waves" of the future.
>>>
>>> The newest smartphones are abandoning both physical and on-screen buttons in
>>> favor of gestures. "[S]crolling, swiping, tapping, pinching, flicking — are
>>> becoming the dominant form of the smartphone user interface," writes Rani
>>> Molla for technology site GigaOM.
>>>
>>> As with so much behavior change ushered in by technology, the change happens
>>> before we take wider notice. But in cars, those physical buttons have been
>>> disappearing; gaming turned to wave commands with Xbox Kinect years ago; and
>>> button-cluttered remote controls are giving way to smartphone controls.
>>> Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 8, is flat and without button
>>> icons to click. Google Glass, the revolutionary spectacle-computer, is
>>> largely controlled with voice commands. And with each new phone, like the
>>> Moto X, the range of gesture commands to interface with it is increasing.
>>>
>>> This creates challenges for user interface designers, who still have a ways
>>> to go to understand which gesture commands are likely to be both precise and
>>> natural enough for wide user adoption. Reviews for Leap Motion, a new device
>>> that turns gestures into digital commands, have been mixed. But the
>>> technological shift is afoot. Already, buttons seem passé
>>>
>>>
>>>     VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
>>> Archived on the World Wide Web at
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>>>
>>>
>>>     VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
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>>>
>>>      VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
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>>
>> --
>> Christopher (CJ)
>> chaltain at Gmail
>>
>>
>>    VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
>> Archived on the World Wide Web at
>>    http://listserv.icors.org/archives/vicug-l.html
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>>    Subscribe: [log in to unmask]

-- 
Christopher (CJ)
chaltain at Gmail


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