METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INPUTTING CHARACTERS IN A MOBILE TERMINAL

A method and apparatus for minimizing the number of key pressings required for character input. When a key is initially pressed, a controller searches, in a storage unit, for characters corresponding to the keys pressed, and sequentially displays the characters in a current cursor position according to a predetermined time that the key is pressed. When pressing of the key is terminated, the character presently displayed in the current cursor position is maintained and the cursor moves to the next cursor position. Since the wanted character can be inputted by pressing only one key, there is a minimal amount of keys utilized to input a character. In particular, by utilizing a consecutive input, the same character can be inputted more effectively and conveniently.