Oz entrepreneur's simple ABC alternative to 'dysfunctional' QWERTY keyboard layout

Brisbane, July 11 (ANI): An Australian entrepreneur has created a new keyboard layout for smatphones that can be used as an alternative to the normal QWERTY keypad.

The keyboard, created by Brisbane-based John Lambie, is in alphabetical order with the letters split over five rows instead of three and it is able to be flipped for easier use by left handed people.

Lambie had been working on the alternative to what he calls the 'dysfunctional' QWERTY keyboard over 25 years ago.

He pointed out the QWERTY keyboard was originally designed to slow people down and space the most used letters far apart so typewriter arms would not stick together.

"I've been playing with ideas, doodling things in the margin as it were for over 25 years," The Brisbane Times quoted Lambie, as saying.

"I was inspired by a lecturer at university who had severe cerebral palsy and therefore very limited use of his hands and fingers and he would always, in every single lecture, find some way to say some derogatory remark about QWERTY," he added.

Lambie is targeting developing countries, such as India and the Philippines, where people have not grown up with QWERTY keyboards in their homes, but are buying up smartphones that have been made in countries such as China on the cheap.

According to the report, he is developing a keyboard for Android phones, which should be ready for download as an app between August and September. (ANI)