No not this one. This one is how it should be. With the new iPods now also torturing us with data entry designed for spiderfingered martians and the confirmation of our suspiscion in Khoi’s article we felt that it is time to state the obvious: Apple, tough coming from brand=interface, interface=brand paradigm, has to fix the keyboard.

We don’t ask for much: The iPhone should allow a flip into a horizontal input layout, whenever you use the input function (see our mockup above). That’s all. They manage to do it with the Safari application. Why not with every application? Text input is not a minor feature, it’s a basic functionality.

It’s all there, so why don’t they do it?

We are not the first to point this out, but it was our first thought when we saw that tiny keyboard and heard people saying: “you get used to it after a couple of days”. The need to “get used to it” is not an attractive pre-requisite for a great interactive product, and, as Khoi also states, even once you’re familiar with the input method there seems to be a skills plateau using the current system.

Now, you can whine as much as you want, my dear Apple fan boys, but this (interface and thus: user experience and thus:) branding crime is as obvious as a missing logo in the upper left corner of a website. The current iPhone keyboard hurts the Apple brand more than the iPhone price cut or the environmental discussion about Apple products. For those not familiar with the current input design, this is what we’re talking about:

You can use this image on the screen to test it if you’re not too scared to touch your screen (some people are very delicate about touching their screens). Try typing your name here. Then scroll up and type on our mock up.