Reinventing the Keyboard

The keyboard was originally designed to conform to two human hands for optimized typing.  Unfortunately as technology has advanced the size of electronic devices we use has become smaller and smaller and the traditional keyboard has followed suit.  Nowadays keyboards are found on devices no bigger than a few inches across and are operated with only one or two fingers.  Despite recent adaptations to the traditional keyboard such as word prediction and auto completion these tiny keyboards are often slow and prone to typos.  To deal with these problems a group has come up with a radical new design for typing called The 8pen designed specifically for typing on small mobile devices.  The technology works through a series of figure-eight finger movements that correspond to letters.  Despite the products ingenuity and it’s low $1.50 price, the 8 pen software it is making little headway in replacing the traditional keyboard on mobile devices.  After 30 years of being the only option for typing, the traditional QWERTY keyboard has formed a strong position in the consumers mind as the number one way to type.  The 8pen faces a significant barrier to entering the market as consumers have spent their whole lives learning how to type on a traditional keyboard and can’t be bothered to learn a new system.  For the 8pen to be successful they will have to brand their product as faster, simpler and more efficient way to type while associating their product as the way of the future.