Unnecessary.

What's the deal with 'u' following 'q'?
Always.
(OK, not always, but damn near often enough to be considered always.)
Quickly, think of a word that has the letter "q" but not the letter 'u' behind it.

If you came up with more than just "Qantas", as in the airlines, you probably are very familiar with the Arabic or Hebrew.

In fact, there are only twelve words recognized as legal for use in scrabble in North America that do not have a 'u' following a 'q'.

So my question is.. why do we bother typing the damn 'u'. To me, it just seems like an unnecessary step. North America has over half a billion people, and lets assume that only 1/2 of them are literate. So you have 250,000,000 people typing or writing this completely unnecessary vowel.

Think of the productivity gains.

Question to Qestion
Quotation to Qotation
Quarter to Qarter
Qualified to Qalified
Queen to Qeen
Quick to Qick.

Just thinking of the time we could all save.

(don't get me started on how 'beard' and 'heard' don't sound the same)
Marburg
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 12ft
(accurate to within 11ft)