[jackbrookes]

> why have mechanical keyboards become so damn popular and not "keyboards on screens?"

I mean... have you ever used a phone?

[dandellion]

My phone has so far replaced zero of my keyboards.

[paxys]

The vast majority of the planet uses a touchscreen phone or tablet as their primary (and sometimes only) computing device. The tech audience on HN is very far removed from how the rest of the world uses technology.

[542354234235]

You said it wouldn't "blow up". You didn't say it would replace mechanical keyboards. It wouldn't. Noone said people were going to switch from using a mechanical keyboard to that. WE are talking about its usefulness for phones/tablets. Also, a phone's on-screen keyboard replaces a mechanical keyboard in that phones dont have a mechanical keyboard and people dont use a mechanical keyboard as their input device for that phone. If my car doesn't have a mechanical key, it has been replaced by a digital key. It doesn't matter if I make 5 copies of my house key.

[hombre_fatal]

I doubt that.

It has replaced all of your keyboards every time you ever input text on your phone.