Thanks!
Myself as well, but that commentary above had less relevance to your post as it did to the thread's theory in general. So while inspired by your observations about the keyboard, that is just one application of this broader-picture change that the market is going through.
Learning is what brings us all together here, whether we have been here for years or hours- I commend you for recognizing that with level-headed patience, there are times when many frustrated or complacent members have forgotten this.
Apple has set the bar in many respects, especially the details such as smooth animations, multimedia presentation, and uniformity across fragmenting software iterations. At this point I don't think Android and Windows phone are trying to reach Apple's bar though, I think they are all three moving in their own directions. This can be a very heated issue (for senseless reasons) speculating on "who-copied-who," but I really think they each have different priorities. Apple's priority was to sell iDevices and all that comes with them (iTunes/accessories), but now their goal seems to be to maintain; stay the course, and try to beat back everyone else with a stick (litigation). Microsoft seems to have the same goal- sell phones, but do so by playing to the complaints society has about smartphones (distractions and time-sucking, which is funny because WP7 takes just as long as iOS 5 and Android 4.0 to open the camera, and is the same as Android 1.2+ -since launch- for information display- "tiles" are widgets), although I am not certain how well that will do. WP7 is marketing itself as the in-between of iOS's regularity and uniformity, and Android's innovation, and does seem to be carving a small niche between the two giants. Google doesn't want to sell you (and by "you" I mean "user 1 on device 578231943", not "NazzySmith") Android phones, in fact Google infuriates and puzzles economic speculators (because they do not charge for most of their products & services) by this. Instead Google wants to find out what you search for, where you search for it, what kind of online decisions you make, etc. so they can sell relevant and targeted ads to people looking to sell you stuff. Android is just one tool to do this by, and Google couldn't care less whether you buy Android or iOS, it gets your info from both. This non-interest interest makes them tough to read, but one thing is certain, Android's marketing strategy (from the manufacturers & carriers) is about choice and openness, and as such they really aren't targeting something iOS does and saying "let's do that!", they are saying "how else can we do that?" then they (try to anyways) do it.
EDIT: I should add that Google doesn't "own" Android (which also generates a ton of confusion, especially in the current court case), Android is an Open Source Project ("AOSP") that is a project of the Open Handset Alliance ("OHA") of which Google is the leading contributor and houses the project. Google bought the company that started Android ("Android Inc." or something like that, founded by Andy Rubin) in 2005, then donated it as a project around 2007- just prior to launch in 2008 I believe.
Here is Swiftkey, one of my favorites, it is a $3.99 purchase (after a one month free trial) but it is probably the best out there right now, and is skin-able...
"Swype" is also good but I think is/was limited to just being pre-loaded on devices now...
Honestly though, I use the voice-to-text (the microphone key on your keyboard) probably 80+% of the time and am extremely pleased with its abilities...
Excellent! Right now it is the most open of the platforms and with marginal work can take you (and your device) the furthest.
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