Android and external keyboards - No luck if you are not from the US

Google added the ability to connect a USB or Bluetooth keyboard to an Android device some versions back. They decided to include one and only one keyboard layout, the US QWERTY layout. It was up to the OEM’s to add more if they found it necessary. Not many did. This means that if you live outside the US and maybe Great Brittan, you are out of luck if you want to connect a local keyboard to your Android phone or tablet. Sure it will work, but none of the local characters will be there.

Asus did a lot of work to correct this on their Transformer and Transformer Prime. Samsung have local keyboard docks for their latest Galaxy Tab range, so they must have done some of the same work. Samsung did not decide to include that work on any of their phones, so if you own one of them, you again are out of luck. HTC have not included any local keyboard layouts in either their phones or the Flyer.

I do see, to some extent, the logic in leaving it to the OEM’s to include different keyboard layouts, that way they can make them fit only their own accessories and make more money. That does not explain why Google did not include sort of standard layout for the country's that's already supported by the standard touch keyboard. I’m not knowledgeable enough to know if this is hard to do, but I don’t see why it should be. This way Google would make sure that everybody that wanted an external keyboard would get at least a decent experience.

Android devices are very versatile devices, and can be put to use in a lot of different scenarios. This is what Android is all about. Leaving out the productivity scenario by not giving everybody who buys an Android device the possibility to connect their local keyboard seem just plain dumb. As the phone screen grows bigger and tablets finally get some traction, the need for an external keyboard will grow. Today if you want to use your latest Android Smartphone as your primary computing unit, and live outside the US, there is no option that I know of. There are some apps in the Market that does some of the work, and there is descriptions online on how to make your own keyboard map on a rooted phone or tablet, but it’s all way to much work for anybody normal. I just want to get myself a nice compact Bluetooth keyboard with my local characters, connect it and get to work.

I might be overlooking something and if anybody out there knows a solution to this problem, please do not hesitate to leave info in the comments. I’m interested in both free and commercial solutions.

Goodbye Desire Z - And the death of the QWERTY Smartphone

Lenovo LePhone was one example, we will see more of this in the future

I have finally put my trusted HTC Desire Z back in its box for good. It’s been there before, while I was testing other phones, but it always came back out when I was done. I've had the Desire Z for almost a year now, that is a long time for me, and I have loved using it. Typing on a touch screen have never been for me, I got more words wrong than right. The spell checker on most phones are good, but even that would not put my typing on the right track. Because of that I have always been drawn to QWERTY phones, and the HTC Desire Z has been my favorite of them all. So why am I retiring it now?

Over the last couple of moths I have been testing phones with 4” screen and above. That has changed my view on touch typing and not least the weight of a phone. I have never minded carrying a heavy phone before. The Desire Z checks in at 180g, but I knew that it was the priced you paid for the QWERTY keyboard. It was a productivity choice and I fairly quickly got used to the weight of it. The first 4” phone I tested was the LG Optimus 2X, and even if I never came to enjoy using the LG user interface, it was the turning point for me. The extra 0.3” made all the difference. It sounds strange that, this small amount of extra space can change the experience that much, but trust me it does. The size of the touch keys get just big enough that I actually god most words right. Now the spell checker more and more turned in to a problem for me, but that is whole other store. The Optimus 2X weighs 139g and is still a fairly heavy phone, but it’s a lot better and a lot thinner than the Desire Z. After the Optimus 2X, I tested the Motorola Atrix, and just recently the Samsung Galaxy Note. The Galaxy Note weights 168g so it’s still a heavy phone but with a screen at 5.3" it’s well worth it.

The QWERTY Smartphone has always been a niche product. Not many made it; HTC, Samsung and Motorola all have one or two models. Nokia had more, but focused on the same form factor as RIM (Blackberry). Both Nokia and RIM have lost a lot of ground the last year and HTC have no replacement for the Desire Z planed. Motorola still have QWERTY Smartphones, both in the Blackberry form factor and the slide out versions. Samsung also have some left in their lineup, but the numbers of models are fading. Everybody is focusing on touch screen Smartphones, and the size of those screens seems to grow every year. Google and Samsung just lunched the Google Nexus Prime, a 4.6” Android phone. HTC has the Sensation XL at 4.3” and the Titan at 4.6”. Samsung have them all beat with the Galaxy Note at 5.3”. So with the size of the touch screen growing and more and more consumers getting used to typing on the screen instead of on a hardware keyboard, the QWERTY Smartphone is dying.

At the same time, on the tablet market, we are seeing a movement in the opposite direction. One of the more prominent Android tablets the Transformer is build to dock with a keyboard. The next Android tablet from Asus the Transformer Prime, have the same dock. Even the iPad seems to be getting a hardware keyboard now. I’m not talking about the iPad 3, but about all the wireless keyboard docks being offered and sold for the iPad. The tablet offers ease of use and transportability, but at the price of no keyboard. To be productive on a tablet you need a keyboard. The iPad have been around for more than 2 years, but it’s only in the last 6 - 8 months the keyboard dock sales really have gone up. The honeymoon period of the tablet is over and now they have to prove them self's as real business tools. I predict the same thing is going to happend with large screen Smartphones.

The 4” Smartphones have been around for less than 12 months and the larger ones are just coming out now. As Smartphones with screens at and above 4.6” starts to enter the business arena, they will slowly move in on the tablet domain, since most people do not want to carry around 3 devices (phone, tablet, notebook) all the time. Large screen Smartphones can replace tablets for most tasks. They offer the same screen resolution, and with Android 4, will be running the same OS. At the same time the tablet with its keyboard dock will move in on the notebook domain. They will be running iOS, Android or most likely Windows 8. This move up the hierarchy will create a need for keyboard docks for the large screen Smartphone. Wireless keyboard for Smartphones is no news. They have been around for some time, but have spent 2 - 3 years in hibernation with the rise of the QWERTY Smartphones. Now the QWERTY Smartphone is fading away and I foresee a bright future for the foldable wireless keyboard. Add a MHL to HDMI link cable (or netbook dock) to the mix and the large screen Smartphone suddenly can morph from a phone, to a tablet, to a netbook type device for use on travel and vacation.

The QWERTY Smartphone might be dying, but I believe we have not seen the last of the hardware keyboard for Smartphones yet.