Virtual Keyboards Are The Future, Why Can’t All Smartphones Have Them Now?

Last week, I receieved the Peek Pronto from the folks at Peek to do a quick review and test out their latest promo, lifetime service with the purchase of a Peek through Amazon. While I was excited to be trying out the Peek device, I was disappointed with the keyboard. Actually, I think I hate all physical keyboards on smartphones. I didn’t realize how annoying it was to type on a smartphone with physical keys until I started using the Peek. To make sure it wasn’t the Peek’s keyboard that bothered me, I used my sister’s Palm Treo, and my friend’s blackberry and they gave me the same feeling, frustration.

I’m going to chalk this up to my years of using the iPhone’s virtual keyboard, which doesn’t require me to push down on a button but rather tap it. The Blackberry, Treo and Peek were difficult to hold and press down on while trying to send an email or text. This is not to say, I want every smartphone to include a virtual keyboard, but something has to be done in order to make it easier to enjoy a physical keyboard right out of the box.

While this is just my personal opinion and experience, I do think it’s one of the reasons why many companies are continuing to churn out smartphones with a virtual keyboard and ditching the physical ones. Blackberry, best known for their physical keyboard, last year released the Blackberry Storm, which had a touch keyboard. They’re implementing it again on their Storm 2, to be released soon in the U.S. even after the first phone received bad reviews. RIM, the makers of the Blackberry, and other smartphone manufacturers, know the future lies with touch smartphones and virtual keyboards. Take for example the T-Mobile G1. It had a physical keyboard when it was first released. HTC’s followup to the G1, myTouch 3G, removed the keyboard for an all-touch based smartphone. It’s the future, everyone knows it and soon, everyone will be using it.

For now though, I’ll have to suck it up and use the physical keyboard on my Peek and hope the constant pressing will eventually make it easier to use. Somehow I get the feeling, I’ll never really get used to it.

Do you prefer using physical keyboards on smartphones over virtual ones? Are virtual keyboards the future or the latest fad?