Butterfly keyboard should be revived

April 28, 2009 7 Comments

butterfly-keyboard-ibm-thinkpad-701
One complaint of netbooks, is not of the small screen size, but rather of the tiny keyboard. A 10 inch netbook usually has a keyboard that is quite reasonable to type on, but 7 inch or 8.9 inch netbooks have a smaller keyboard naturally, but this can cause some problems with typing. jkOnTheRun has pointed out, that the butterfly keyboard should be revived for today’s netbooks.

The butterfly keyboard, was previously found on the ThinkPad 701 by IBM. The 701, or as it was also known, the TrackWrite, released in 1995 featured a 10 inch display and would surely fit todays requirements for netbook status. Likewise one complaint of the ThinkPad 701 was the smaller than average keyboard. IBM solved this problem, by releasing the Butterfly keyboard which opened up to a full size keyboard. Lenovo now own the ThinkPad range and possible the patent for the keyboard. Is it something that might be revived? It worked well on the 10 inch sub notebook of the past and could surely work on todays netbooks.

Twitter Digg Delicious Stumbleupon Technorati Facebook Email
10-inch, 7 inch, 9inch, Lenovo, Netbook, Peripherals and Accessories
, , , ,
  • http://wombatdiet.net Eats Wombats

    I agree.

    I have abandoned an Asus 1000 for serious use because the keyboard is just too small.

  • James

    But, if netbooks come with butterfly keyboards, how on earth are manufacturers now going to justify the enormous bezels around the screen…

  • http://www.lototexas.net/ LotoTexas

    i have problems with the small keys too… this could be a great idea!

  • Kim

    Hmm, this is a crap solution, flap, flap, unless it’s an external keyboard. Oh, wait, we do have usb-keyboards. Just buy one extra and plug it in. The thing with a small netbook is mobility, so bringing a keyboard, a widescreen 32″ monitor with it, sort of kill the idea.

    I hope the future will bring holographic solutions for screens and keyboards, so we just carry the hardware box.

  • Jeff

    I’d kill for a netbook with Butterfly keyboard. Hell, I’d even settle for a usb keyboard with fold-down legs that can perch over my netbook’s awful keyboard (so I can use it without having to push the screen another foot back).

  • http://www.unitedrevival.com Revival

    This is a interesting blog. I’ve always been a supporter of this kind of thinking. I’m hoping that this starts a revival of this kind of thinking along the same lines.

  • Lowlevel

    The expanding keyboard works well when you work on hard surfaces, but it makes the notebook more fragile when you’re holding it/etc. Trust me, I broke mine a couple times… and back then, these notebooks were up in the $8000-10000 price range. Not fun.


Similar Posts: