Staying on Key: Projected Capacitive Touchscreens vs Keyboards

With the introduction of the smartphone, more and more people have become familiar with touchscreen technology.

When they began to replace physical keyboards off of cellular phones in favour of more digital screens, it questioned how many retailers designed their products.

Soon enough, nearly everything will be equipped with projected capacitive touchscreen capabilities – but it doesn’t necessarily mean the end of physical keyboards.

Personal Computer Development

Whilst personal computers still retain physical keyboards, most people are comfortable without them for doing things that do not require keyboard functionality, such as writing or programming.

What does this say about the way our future touchscreen devices are developed?

The Evidence

Former cell phone giant Blackberry, once famous for its QWERTY keyboard functionality and BBM app, has now ceased all development and production for its in-house OS.

Instead, it will incorporate all future products with Android, sparking a wave of nostalgia from those who still used their old Blackberry devices as a secondary gadget to their smartphones.

Basic phones that are out in the market still incorporate a numerical keyboard into their design, but for most smartphone users, physical keyboards can be done without.

More and more laptops are incorporating touchscreen technology, with brands like HP and Lenovo creating hybrid laptop-tablet devices with touchscreen functionality. Apart from that, touchscreen devices can now be used for educating and creating awareness in people, as seen in nearly all sectors from schools to museums and even public forums.

For general public use, projected capacitive touchscreen is being implemented in even non-commercial purposes, from panel PCs to industrial computers for use in military and steel manufacturing. This more tactile way of issuing commands and manipulating software has opened many doors for other developments in the industry.

The Comeback 

For larger-scale work, or for those in need of a more versatile command options, there are certain fields where a physical keyboard is indispensable in their line of work.

Bloggers

It will be very difficult for writers to do their work with touchscreen devices alone.

From literary prose to business and technical writing, physical keyboards being implemented into their personal computers is a must.

Most people associate writing with touchscreen devices to text messaging, but for more formal modes of communication, it is recommended to use a physical keyboard.

Developers and/or Programmers

For those who are into the data mining, cybersecurity, or computer science fields, the presence of physical keyboards is a must.

Issuing commands and lines of code would be difficult to implement on on-screen keyboards or simple touchscreen technology.

In creating software, for example, the programming involved for such games are still attributed to high-powered computers with specialised keyboards.

Game Developers

For most games, building their own PCs and incorporating industrial computer components to their units is part of increasing gameplay performance.

As gaming is becoming more and more popular, it will become very difficult to play certain PC games without incorporating physical keyboards into it. Some manufacturers have even begun to create product lines and hardware dedicated for gaming.

Sources:

The Lenovo Yoga Book with 'Halo' digital keyboard and pen stylus is the craziest PC yet, windowscentral.com