Swype no longer in beta, arrives in the Google Play Store at the introductory price of $1
You guys may remember Swype when it came bundled inside a handful of Android handsets back in the day (like the Droid Eris from ’09). Shortly after, we saw Swype launch as a public beta and many have scratched their heads wondering when or if Swype would ever release in the Google Play Store. After all this time, the unthinkable has happened — Swype is now officially available in the Google Play Store.
Launching at a special introductory price of $1 (a free trial version is also available), I honestly can’t say I ever thought I’d see the day. In reality, it hasn’t been too long since Nuance acquired Swype for $100+ million back in ’11. But here we are, well into 2013 and with countless swiping keyboards at our disposal, some are wondering what too Swype so long, and if it’s too little, too late.
While in beta, Swype was free for everyone to download, but had a few hoops users had to jump through before they could get it up and running on their devices (like a separate installer). Initially, Swype had a few licensing deals with manufacturers like Samsung to include the virtual keyboard in a handful of devices. As you may remember from a post we covered in November of last year, we discovered that Samsung had recently gotten into bed with our friends at SwiftKey, who, as it turns out, recently unveiled their own gesture typing feature called “Flow.”
We’ll have to see how well Play Store availability does for Swype. As it stands the app has already gained over a thousand 5-star reviews on Google Play. Question is, are you any of you buying?