Because non-programmers start counting at 1. 0 is only used when you get to 10.

Zero was (is) special. It dials the operator. This was much more common back then than it is today, so it is fitting that it got a special position. I can't speak for keyboards, but I do recall once reading a Knuth paper on METAFONT where he noted the difference between the order that mathematicians write numbers (0123456789) and the order that typographers write numbers (1234567890).

At least on the numpad it makes sense. One of the most used buttons in accouting (the 0) is assigned to your thumb and it can rest on the oversized button.

As for the number row, this seems to sum things up nicely: http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/39544/keyboard-number-...

Basically the 0 was added near the O because pre-zero being included typists used the capital O as zero. Thus zero was placed near O as a matter of usage.

Are you aware that for a long time many typewriters didn't even have a one key? You were supposed to type a lowercase ell for one. And if you really needed an exclamation point, you overstruck a period with a single-quote.

Obviously that could never had worked on a computer keyboard, and I think the trend to supply an actual one key was in motion before keyboard-enabled computers became common. My point is that the folks who invented and (initially) used typewriters were not thinking mathematically. They were 100% concerned with getting ink on paper quickly and legibly.

In case of rotary phones it was much easier to put zero at the end. The old phones used pulses to dial numbers - one pulse meant one, two pulses - two, and so on. Ten pulses meant zero. If they wanted to put zero at the beginning, the dialing mechanism would need to be much more complex.

0 is 10 pulses on a rotary dial. 0 is not really a number technically is it, more of a digit?