QWERTY Keyboards & Distribution
Why Our Keyboard Layouts are so Quirky
Recently, a common phrase being bandied about is “Distribution Trumps Product.”
There is a lot of wisdom in this statement. Plenty of incredible technical solutions have ended up folding because distribution wasn’t established nor successful. In some cases, having great distribution can actually solve having the worse product as success begets more capital to reinvest in the business leading to a greater product advantage at steady state.
We’ve all been there where we say, ugh this product sucks….and yet that is the product we continue to buy because of inherent distribution. Or distribution just makes the product become the natural default. I buy Tide laundry detergent simply because its at eye level in the grocery store and is the first product listed on Amazon.
Anyone, notice how quickly Pepsi’s Bubbly product has appeared on grocery shelves in prime locations compared to La Croix recently? That’s distribution at work.
My favorite story of the power of distribution is the QWERTY keyboard. There’s a full chapter in Guns, Germs and Steel about it. A shorter synopsis can be found in this article.
When typewriters were prevalent, the arrangement of keys was originally in order of what was pressed most often from top to bottom (some typewriters also arranged buttons alphabetically although less common). This presented a problem as common letters such as vowels were close to each other. As people typed quickly or used typewriters extensively, the keys would get stuck as the mechanical arms would cross each other. So the typewriter manufacturers came up with the QWERTY layout to prevent this and improve the user experience.
As computers came about, the QWERTY layout became the de facto keyboard even though it was designed for a different system and is believed to still be slower than other layouts from various research studies. However, typing coaches, manufacturers, online classes, various generations with shared knowledge, etc were all used to the QWERTY keyboard and so it stuck. Even the games that companies put out to teach kids how to type have this entrenched in it (pic below) which fuels more keyboards manufactured this way in a reinforcing loop.
To this day, we all still use a more inefficient keyboard for our current paradigm because of distribution!
So next time you’re using a Salesforce CRM and wondering why you can’t just use the nice startup CRM that your friend uses, remember that the army of system integrators, consultants, direct salespeople, branding, and integration partners is the distribution engine that makes all of it happen.
You can choose to make this an asset for your startup or disregard it at your own risk.
Sometimes I dream of becoming a Dvorak guy (not to mention the added benefit of it being a cooler name and a good composer too), but the transition must be so painful, I've never dared...