Nobody is saying adding more functions to the OS would not require more time both coding those functions, testing them and making sure they play nice with the rest of the OS.

However, the only complaints I have seen is that it would have taken another 6-12 months to make ALL STOCK APPS support portrait mode. I read nothing claiming having a software keyboard in the API would have caused such a long delay. In fact, nobody else seems to be asking for such a minimal solution, this thread is mainly about adding portrait mode to applications not simply adding a keyboard to the API to make portrait mode easier and more consistent for developers to add themselves.

The thing is, you miss out a major feature like this and the reputation of the OS will suffer for it. When they FINALLY sort it out, older applications will not support it yet so there could be 100 different keyboards depending on which application you are using and how they addressed the problem. Just like my pet hate on Linux where one application will one file requester with my saved shortcuts on it, then suddenly another will use some other API/Toolkit without my shortcuts. This inconsistency slows the user down and while its something you might put up with on a desktop OS, its totally unacceptable for a mobile where every second counts because you may only have seconds to get the job done, especially as you are relying on limited battery life.

Incidentally, I am newbie developer who was learning C# to write on Windows Mobile, but got stuck with its legacy of having 1000 ways to do something, none of which I could get to work just right. I have also been using Linux exclusively on the desktop for over a year, about 10 years for server/router and occasional desktop use. So I can see the flaws from an end-user perspective but am also aware many of those flaws are the open nature of Linux, too many different toolkits that do the same task. That is great, but not something that is helpful on a mobile device.

Fact is, if you want it to be friendly to the end-user it has to be consistent. So even if you choose to use x y or z toolkit, the OS itself needs a backbone to enforce some rules. One of those rules should be to provide a soft keyboard and ensure it behaves the same in all applications, that is pretty much all I am trying to say. Of course a soft keyboard is only essential for portrait applications, it often would not be needed for landscape ones. But it would be good practice for it to work either way. You are trying to provide what a developer needs. Like daperl said, you do not want to make developers reinvent the wheel.

Sorry if I did not make that obvious previously. You can tell I am not a document writer as I tend to be a bit long-winded in my explanations.