[brittohalloran]

This missing element of that analysis is that in the smartphone era you almost never type out a phone number. You were texted it and click on it, see it on the web and click on it, found the company on Google maps and click on it...

The dial-pad may be too difficult to reach on our big screens now, but the momentum required to change it will never exist because it simply doesn't get enough use to be a pain point anymore.

Excellent write up and use of graphics though. The Bell labs part was really interesting.

[ianburrell]

Phone numbers are also entered into contacts and other places with the number pad keyboard. The numpad keyboard works better on bigger screens than the full dial pad since it occupies bottom of screen.

Replacing the dial pad with the numpad keyboard would solve the problem and not require custom layout. It would also be more consistent across applications that do calls instead of having a special dial pad for the phone app.

[lallysingh]

Or conversely, nobody will mind if you start changing it. Maybe they'll appreciate the improvement when they do have to do it.