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16 Aug 2007
Users of Apple's iPhone can only compose text messages at half the speed achieved by users of conventional Qwerty and numeric phone keyboards, new research has revealed.
Chicago-based usability consultancy User Centric said that the iPhone's touchscreen is "potentially problematic" for sending text messages.
User Centric tested the iPhone's SMS features with frequent texters to see how rapidly they could adapt to the iPhone's touch keyboard.
All 20 participants sent at least 15 messages per week. Ten participants owned phones with a full Qwerty keypad and 10 owned phones with a numeric keyboard. None of the participants owned an iPhone.
Each participant typed six fixed-length text messages on their own phone and six on an iPhone.
It took Qwerty users almost twice as long to create the same message on the iPhone as it did on their Qwerty phone. While there was improvement over time, the difference persisted even after using the iPhone for 30 minutes.
"For Qwerty users, texting was fast and accurate. But when they switched to the iPhone, they were frustrated with the touch sensitive keyboard," said Jen Allen, a usability specialist at User Centric.
In contrast to Qwerty users, numeric users used the 'multi-tap' method of entering text messages on their phones, pressing individual number keys multiple times to get a desired letter or character to appear.
Although multi-tap is inherently inefficient, numeric phone users took nearly as long to create a message on the iPhone as they did on their numeric phones.
There was no increase in efficiency despite the iPhone's corrective text approach, User Centric found.
When using the iPhone's touch keyboard, all participants frequently selected keys that they had not intended.
Participants usually corrected these errors by using the backspace key to erase one character at a time. Only seven participants figured out how to use the corrective text feature on their own.
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Texting issues with iphones
Thats a silly study, obviously the 13 that didnt figure out that the iphone can correct your text for you are retarded because it took me two minutes to realize that .. the only problem with text msgs is that you can not copy/past nor can you forward a msg nor can you send a msg to several ppl at once (3rd party).. im guessing all these problems will be fixed with the newer iphone that will come out in 2008..
Posted by: madman8 10 Oct 2007
The Usual FUD
The guys who did this study must have been paid by the cell phone makers. Such a dumb research. They ought to go back to school and learn how to do conduct more appropriate, unequivocal research.
Posted by: poggi11 17 Aug 2007
Study? 20 people?
Euhm, a study of 20 people texting 15 messages a week, that's hardly a tenth of what youngsters sent in a week. 20 people is not enough, to justify your title. 15 messages a week? Those people do not have to increase the speed. So, this is just wasted time, I'm sorry.
Posted by: janmorren 17 Aug 2007
Why would you want one
I know the US loves it but your mobile (cell)phone technology is so far behind I can't beleive it's so raved about - mot vene 3G.....
Posted by: Mark 17 Aug 2007
Curious
You have to wonder why they didn't start with people who didn't use any keyboard and then have them try both approaches. I was not an experienced texter. I received a blackberry and iPhone about the same time. I'm now much faster on the iPhone than on the blackberry. But then I use the iPhone much more than the blackberry. The blackberry sits in my computer bag and I check messages twice a day.
Posted by: John 17 Aug 2007
This research is such BS
I have been using both JiveTalk and Mundu for the iPhone and I can text FASTER than I ever did on any of my prior PDA phones - the Treo 650 and the Verizon XV6700 with slide-out keyboard. The auto-correction feature makes it amazingly accurate and fast - and faster than with any other portable keyboard. Note, that I am not one of those who use shorthand when chatting. I spell all words out with correct puncuation.
Posted by: Ron 16 Aug 2007
You make it even worse
Your article title makes it even more sensational..good grief. The study's title was more realistic; QWERTY Texters Demonstrated Drop in Efficiency When Texting on iPhone I'm sure a Crackberry user has a harder time texting on a Treo and vise-versa. As was stated before...RUBBISH!!!!
Posted by: gordon 16 Aug 2007
Total rubbish
Why do you repeat such rubbish? They take people who are experts on another type of keyboard (>15 txt msgs/week) and start testing them immediately on an iPhone's keyboard. Then they use 30 minutes as an advanced time point? This is totally ridiculous. They should have either taken people who were completely naive on both systems or given people an opportunity to learn the iPhone until they reached a plateau. The real headline is "So-called research group User Centric, doesn't know how to design a research study." Shame on you for repeating it without any analysis.
Posted by: Frank 16 Aug 2007
iphone & texting
First of all who gives a $^&*. Second the girl that sent 30,000 text messages in in one month didn't have a problem. That averages out to 60+ messages an hour in a 16 hour day (8 hours sleep) Third of all who gives a^$@)
Posted by: Rick 16 Aug 2007
Bah
What a ridiculous "study." I can text faster on the iPhone. Even my clumsy oaf of a network admin can text faster on the iPhone. My friends have tried it and they all found it faster and easy to use. Wouldn't surprise me at all to find that Samsung or LG paid for this "study." People also claim that the Blackberry and Sidekick are faster to text on.. and they have QWERTY keyboards too. This is just anti-iPhone bias.
Posted by: Amanda 16 Aug 2007