What Is The Cell Phone QWERTY Keyboard Feature?

Cell phone QWERTY keyboards are keyboards based on the QWERTY keyboard format that has been in use since the 1800’s with the first typewriters.

This format is so-called because the top five letters on the left side of the keyboard happen to form a word that is pronounceable in the English language: QWERTY. The word is gibberish, however, although there is a popular myth that the keyboard contains the word QWERTY in it because its inventor’s name was Qwerty.

This is not the case. In 1874, Christopher Sholes, Samuel Soule, and Carlos Glidden came up with the keyboard model that was released commercially by the Remington Gun Company. So you see, the word “QWERTY” is just a random occurrence that worked out fine.

Cellular phone QWERTY keyboards are most often seen with PDA cell phones and pocket PC cell phones. In today’s drive for smaller and smaller cell phones, there really isn’t enough room for a cellular phone QWERTY keyboard on a regular cell phone or mobile wireless handset.

Many PDA’s however, offer a variation of the QWERTY keyboard on their PDA cell phones intended to optimize the buttons for space and ease of use. Due to size restrictions and the fact that a PDA can “double up” the functions of many keys (such as putting a regular phone dialling number box in the middle of the keyboard) it was necessary to alter the original QWERTY configuration somewhat.

It has proved to work amazingly well, as people familiar with the QWERTY keyboards on their desktop PC’s or word processors have made the leap to the optimized cellular QWERTY keyboard easily and with out too many growing pains.

If you would like to take a look at a cellular phone QWERTY keyboard, all you need to do is find your nearest cell phone PDA or pocket PC cell phone dealer. As more PDA cellular phones appear on the market (and you can bet they are coming) you will be able to go to cell phone providers to find them as well.

Also see; glossary of cell phone terms and definitions.

Author Notes:

Bill Schnarr contributes and publishes news editorial to http://www.cell-phones-n-plans.com. A cell phone industry resource that features service plan comparisons, cellular phone reviews and articles.