SwiftKey: In the age of smartphones and touch screens, typing messages and large texts remains a "headache" for users, as the use of small keyboards on touchscreens entails many mistakes, while autocorrect very often turns out to be more of a "joke generator" than a useful tool.
Many companies are trying to change this by making mobile keyboards 'smart', but few seem to be succeeding – including SwiftKey, a London startup that released a keyboard app in 2010. The SwiftKey app until last week cost four dollars, but now it can be obtained for free. As stated in a NY Times article, citing the company, it has since been downloaded more than 30 million times, while it is now rated as one of the most popular applications on Google Play.
This app predicts what the user will type through artificial intelligence and online data analysis, including what they type in other applications, "learning" which words they usually use. The set of information is used to "predict" what the user is likely to type after. A key component of the success of the application is personalization, as different predictions are offered to each user, depending on how they type, what their interests are, and what language they use. Overall, SwiftKey offers predictions of words in 66 languages.
"There is tremendous strategic value in dominating the world of keyboards," says John Reynolds, one of the co-founders of the company, to the NT Times. "Whatever app you use on your phone, we're there," he adds.
The SwiftKey app is believed to be currently on 250 million phones, and has naturally piqued the interest of major tech companies. According to the publication, which cites well-informed sources, Google and Facebook have explored the possibility ofmarket of the company, however no kind of agreement has been reached.
The application now follows the so-called "freemium" model, which has been adopted for a long time by many companies in the gaming space in particular: the app is available for free but there is a charge for various extra features. This particular model is particularly popular when it comes to selling apps in countries like China and India, where many users are averse to the prospect of paying for apps – but not so averse to paying for premium material.
So far, the app is for Android, and the company works with manufacturers like Samsung and LG. However, there is also an intention to extend to the "world" of Apple users.
Source: naftemporiki.gr
