Keypads and Touch it pads in phones and calculators or keyboards  

Thats a very interesting little thing to think about, I have never thought about it before, maybe the same people who put the computer keys designed them with some sort of reason, I hope someone can tell us if there is a reason for it...funny how you take things in front of you for granted, I never even thought about that.

It is pretty odd that a calculator and a touch-tone telephone have exactly opposite layouts for their keypads, which have many identical components. The reasons behind the differences are not known for certain, but a few theories exist.

The first theory deals with the telephone's circuitry and tone-recognition hardware. When the touch-tone telephone was being designed in the late 1950s, the calculator and adding-machine designers had already established a layout that had 7, 8 and 9 across the top row. Data-entry professionals, and others who used calculators fairly regularly, were quite adept at navigating these keypads. They could hit the numbers extremely quickly, which was great for data entry, but not so great for dialing a touch-tone phone. The tone-recognition technology could not operate effectively at the speeds at which these specialists could dial the numbers. The telephone designers figured that if they reversed the layout, the dialing speeds would decrease and the tone-recognition would be able to do its job more reliably. This theory has little proof to substantiate it, but it does make sense.

A second theory refers to a study done by Bell Labs in 1960. This study involved testing several different telephone-keypad layouts to find out which was easiest to master. After testing several layouts, including one that used two rows with five numbers each and another that used a circular positioning, it was determined that the three-by-three matrix that had 1, 2 and 3 across the top was the easiest for people to use.

Another theory is based on the layout of a rotary telephone. On a rotary dial, 1 is at the top right and zero is on the bottom. When designing the new touch-tone keypad, putting the 1 on the top-right didn't make much sense, because Western writing is read from left to right. But putting 1 on the top-left, and the subsequent numbers to the right, did make sense. Using that formula, the resulting rows fell into place, with zero getting its own row at the bottom.

All of these theories attempt to explain why telephone and calculator keypads are exact opposites, yet no one theory can be pinpointed as the definitive reason. It is common practice today to use the telephone-keypad layout when designing new products that utilize a keypad, such as Automated Teller Machines.

Source: www.howstuffworks.com

In the calculator, it is easier to place the 1's and o's on the lower portion because it is mostly used and placing them in the lower portion would lessen the force used by our finger. Clicking the 7 8 and 9 would mean longer strokes for the fingers.

In the cellphoneor telephones, the 0 1 and 2 are in the upper portion because it also served as abc def and so forth and in the alphabet we have an arrangement that the first letters start in the upper left.

they just want to confuse us lol

i hope this buttons and touchpad will be soon replaced by touchscreen like Apple Mac did for their iPhones.

I also have no idea about it...it's an interesting thing to know about... I believe it because of ergonomic principles...just like the way letters are arrange in the keyboard. Well, i'm not really sure, i recommend we browse the internet for answers.