Top US Android Phones Have QWERTY Keyboards [Most Used Android US Phones Use Slider QWERTY Keyboards, Does It Matter?]

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AdMob’s recent report on smartphone usage made news a few days ago when it was revealed that Android had surpassed iPhone OS in terms of mobile web usage. But, AdMob also has been tracking the most popular web phones – and the top three Android phones all have physical QWERTY keyboards. Do we need to rethink the way we think about these physical keyboards?

Here’s the top five US smartphones by web usage, as measured by AdMob:

1. iPhone
2. Motorola Droid
3. HTC Dream / T-Mobile G1
4. Motorola CLIQ
5. HTC Magic / T-Mobile myTouch 3G

Remember at the time the first iPhone came out, with its slate keyboard-less design, BlackBerry and Palm Treos ruled the smartphone world – both of which had a heavy physical QWERTY keyboard design. The way the iPhone made use of its virtual ‘soft’ keyboard certainly changed the way we thought about virtual keyboards, but why are consumers drawn to the slider QWERTY keyboards of the Droid, G1 and CLIQ?

Interesting to note – the 5th most popular Android phone, the Magic / myTouch 3G, has a rumored slider edition coming sometime this year. AndroidandMe’s Taylor Wimberly makes the point that the majority of customers aren’t buying Android phones because of Android – they’re buying it because of the way it looks. And despite all the engineering manpower that went into the virtual keyboard on Android, HTC Sense and MOTOBLUR, consumers still want the physical QWERTY keyboards.

Does your current phone have a physical QWERTY keyboard or T9 keypad? Are you a virtual keyboard user? Do you care which your phone has?

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