• Introduction: The QWERTY keyboard has remained largely unchanged despite technological innovations. Its origin story is debated, with some suggesting it was to prevent typewriter jams and others linking it to the telegraph.
• Early History: In the 1860s, Christopher Latham Sholes developed an early typewriter with an alphabetical arrangement of keys. One theory is that he redesigned the keyboard to prevent typewriter jams by separating common letter sequences. In the 1870s, Sholes and his colleagues entered a manufacturing agreement with Remington and started selling typewriters. By 1891, over 100,000 QWERTY-based typewriters were in use.
• Related Theories: Another theory credits Remington's pre-merger business tactics with the popularization of QWERTY. Typists who learned on Remington's proprietary system had to stay loyal to the brand. Kyoto University researchers suggest that the QWERTY system emerged in response to telegraph operators who needed to quickly transcribe messages and found the alphabetical arrangement confusing.
• Rivals to QWERTY: The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, developed in the 1930s, aimed to increase typing efficiency by using the "home" row of keys. Some research showed improved speed and accuracy with Dvorak, but other research has suggested it isn't more efficient. When computer keyboards emerged, there was no mechanical reason to use QWERTY, but millions of people had already learned it.
• The KALQ System: The KALQ system, designed for thumb-typing on smartphones and tablets, attempts to break from the QWERTY system. It is a product of path dependency as it still uses the basic notion of individually separated letters.
• Conclusion: Our most advanced communication technologies still use designs created 150 years ago. Whether a new system like KALQ is better remains to be seen, but it shows that even with technological advancements, some designs are deeply ingrained.