Tim Bray has some interesting thoughts on smart phones and keyboards, and quotes John Gruber, who claims that most people will find an iPhone style keyboard "good enough". Tim's response?

I could draw parallels with Apple s lengthy and deeply misguided conviction that one button on a mouse is enough. And maybe I am a niche. But you know, it s a great big honking niche that includes a ton of Android and Blackberry and now Palm Pre users. And the iPhone users will be sitting next to them in departure lounges and staff meetings and coffee shops and watching them power-thumb their thoughts to their friends.

The button thing is amusing, but Apple has had configuration settings for multiple buttons (depending on where and how you click) for a long while now. They surrendered on that one while keeping things in a state that allows them to claim that they were right. Probably Steve Jobs' inability to reall admit to an error there :)

On the keyboard, I don't know. I definitely fall into the "good enough" camp at this point, and I love my iPhone. I do know people who love Blackberries a lot, but: I also know people who are switching from Blackberries to iPhones. Are there people switching the other way? We'll start to find out this summer, as the first 2 year contracts start to expire. I wouldn't count on a lot of motion that way, and I think the reason for that will have little to do with the keyboard.

It's all about the apps and the app store. Until something similar arises for the other smart phones, I think they are fighting an uphill battle.

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