David Gilson has a theory. It concerns correlating the aspect ratio of a smartphone's virtual or physical qwerty keyboard with text entry speed, on the grounds that one's thumbs have more (or less) work to do, depending on form factor. Read on for his data and the theory in detail - and see if you can help produce more data points with your own device(s).

"Text input is an age old problem for mobile devices, simply because space is at a premium. Phones that have either a physical or virtual QWERTY keyboard are becoming more prevalent as messaging and 'updating status' become more of a mainstream habit. While text correction can enhance the experience, the fundamental building block of a good messaging device is the design of its keyboard. Of course, there are still some 12-key T9 devices coming out, and there have been attempts at making pseudo-QWERTY devices (e.g. the E55), but it is fair to say that full QWERTY is on the rise.

Last year, Steve wrote about QWERTY keyboards, first taking a survey of typing speeds on wide range of devices, and then taking a more detailed look at aspects of a selected range of physical keyboards. After having reviewed a range of form factors over the past few months, it occurred to me that there is another aspect that can affect how quickly and how comfortably someone can thumb-type on a mobile QWERTY keyboard, whether it be physical or virtual. Therefore I set about collating Steve's data and my own measurements, along with contributions from Twitter users."

Read on