It's about size. And the mouse is not less efficient than the keyboard for certain tasks. For others (especially, I'd imagine, the hacker news crowd) it can be

It's about size. And the mouse is not less efficient than the keyboard for certain tasks. For others (especially, I'd imagine, the hacker news crowd) it can be less efficient, but I don't think that's so much of a general rule. I love the keyboard on my full-sized computers. But lately, I tried to ssh to a server to fix an issue from my iPhone and typing was a bitch. Despite gestures and shortcuts and my aliases, I couldn't really get anything done and gave it up to do later. I don't know what your idea of productivity is but some things are very amenable to being grabbed and manipulated. It's just so much simpler and faster. For example, I use irssi on my phone when colloq stops working to get on irc, and I wish I could flick back and forth between windows...or I wish I could manipulate and split windows with only my fingers zooming in and out and dragging things. No, I have to type it out and it is a very annoying pain in the ass. I know irssi isn't a mobile app, but it sure does make a good example.