As can be seen when a touch device boots after a hard reset or for the first time and the prompt for date and time is done, the input panel is raised and the user does not need o go through touching the control input field to activate the virtual keyboard.

This cuts out an additional keypress for the user and makes it clear that on a touch device the user should click the virtual buttons!

This same affect can be achieved in 5th edition devices by using he EEikDialogFlagVirtualInput in the flags field of a query resource (ie the DIALOG resource control definition)

This format is particularly useful when a single field needs to be ntered in.

Below is the dialog resource which is compatible with both 3rd and 5th edition devices

RESOURCE DIALOG r_text_query
    {
    flags = EGeneralQueryFlags | 0x8000/*| EEikDialogFlagVirtualInput*/;
    buttons = R_AVKON_SOFTKEYS_OK_CANCEL;
   
    items =
        {
        DLG_LINE
            {
            type = EAknCtQuery;
            id = EGeneralQuery;
            control = AVKON_DATA_QUERY
                {
                layout = EDataLayout;
                control = EDWIN
                    {
                    flags = EEikEdwinResizable;
                    width = 5;
                    maxlength = 256;
                    max_view_height_in_lines = 5;
                    base_line_delta = 21;
                    };
                };
            }
        };
    }

The effect is illustrated below
On all devices without the EEikDialogFlagVirtualInput set

and after

For extra credit its possible to replace the EEikDialogFlagVirtualInput efine with its hex value (0x8000) and in so doing the same code base can be utilized in both the 3rd and 5th edition devices, just on touch enabled devices the keypad will show automatically.