Concerning how touch tone phones got their button order. A bit more information - this is from Bell Labs Journals. The row/column set up was because the touch-tone phones were DTMF, Dual Tone Multiple Frequency. Each column of keys connected to a frequency generator of a specific frequency. Each Row of keys, did the same. When you pressed a particular key, you "added" these two frequencies together to give a tone/signal unique to each key. Manufacturing was much easier and cheaper with rows and columns. Now it was not the "best" but it was good enough and cheaper! But it also made it very easy to hack the needed frequencies to do things we were not supposed to do - like free long distance calls. Good old Ma Bell.