Hi everyone,

HTC's new touchscreen G1, running the much-hyped mobile device operating system developed by Google, has announced that it will soon get a virtual keyboard.  Virtual keyboards are keyboards that appear on the phone's display and you type on them by touching the appropriate letter on the screen.  This new keyboard will be an addition to the physical keyboard that the G1 employs.  At the push of a button the screen flips back to show the physical keyboard underneath. 

Some people prefer the physical keyboard because its buttons are raised and there is a satisfying click when a letter is depressed.  This is especially important to people who are blind or who have low vision and have  memorized the QWERTY-style keyboard. Something that is a great deal harder to do on a virtual keyboard when you don't know where to press. 

Another factor is screen real estate is compromised when a virtual keyboard appears on the display.  People with low vision who rely on larger font points may not be able to see the letters because the new virtual keyboard takes up too much space.

A possible solution to these problems is to employ a screen reader that helps you know which button you are pressing.  So when you press the letter "A" the phone's internal speaker says "A".  Another would be to offer tactile feedback on the virtual keyboard that mimics that satisfying button press of the physical keyboard.  This is rumored to be on the new touchscreen BlackBerry.

What are your preferences, or biases, towards the two different types of keyboards, both virtual and physical?  Or, in a perfect world, what kind of ideal typing interface would you design?

-Ben