Swype keyboard is expected to grace 10 million handsets by the end of the year

For those who detest it, news about Swype's fortunes will come as a blow. Conversely for those who adore the non-traditional text input method, they can rejoice in knowing that more handsets are expected to make the Swype keyboard their default choice. The company responsible for Swype intends to speed things up for the hasty text inputting method as they have the expectation to pack it on to about 10 million smartphones before the year is up. That's a considerable goal especially now that the company is planning on deploying it in markets like Asia, Europe, and South America. Swype's Chief Executive Officer, Mike McSherry, is glad to know that there are six smartphones right now that currently offer Swype with another 14 models being added later in the year. He went on to say, “We want to be the default keyboard for every screen. We've got a number of major deployments coming up.” Interestingly enough, McSherry did approach Apple on bring Swype on-board the iPhone as they were initially impressed with the technology. Their position soon changed and expressed “disappointment” later when it was made known that Swype was going to be licensed to other phone manufacturers. There's no doubt that Swype can be extremely useful for some people out there, but it definitely requires a bit of time getting adjusted to it.

source: Business Week