Why does the Soft Keyboard appear?
<p>I'm using the Android emulator to test my first Android application. While there is a functioning hard keyboard at the right side of the emulator window, the soft keyboard shows up when editing in an <code>EditText</code> control.</p>

<p>I'm aware of the option to hide the soft keyboard by using an instance of <code>InputMethodManager</code>, however I'm wondering why the soft keyboard does appear at all (when the hard keyboard is available).</p>

<p>To me, as a user, the soft keyboard in this case is rather distracting, hence I'd like to get rid of it if useful. - This question is about the practical context (i.e., is there any use of the soft keyboard when there is a hard keyboard, do real-world devices behave similarly to the emulator) and about general strategies to address the issue.</p>

<p>Thanks. I'll be upvoting any helpful hints.</p>
