And there were arguments for that as well. The problem is that even though there would be fewer taps needed, instead of taping in 26+ locations, you'd be taping in about 10. Even worse, the 10 taps would always be in the same exact location every time, whereas if you were using the virtual keyboard, there would probably more of a variation on where you tapped each letter each time. It makes some sense.

I think they just didn't want people to use text messaging with the keypad.

And like I said, I would LOVE to use this thing with a keyboard. That is the ideal solution.