In the last 12 months or more there has been a growing trend among many copier manufacturers to offer LCD control panels with NO hard keys for the user to touch. Manufacturers like to say that it lowers the cost of the copier and that some customers prefer the tablet style swipe interfaces like a cell phone.
The latest Toshiba product line offers dramatically fewer hard keys than previous models but some are still there. Notably two programmable one touch buttons that can instantly take a user to whatever predetermined task they request.
I have actually won two different 45 cpm deals this week against a Samsung and a Ricoh both with no hard keys. Both buyers liked the idea of one touch access to scan to email and mentioned it was a deciding factor.
I still prefer my Blackberry Classic with a physical keyboard and I prefer my car sound system to have hard buttons.
Maybe I am old school but I think this is a low tech differentiating feature that buyers can easily understand.
I understand some vendors offer built in or optional physical keyboards or keypads.
