One of the “Killer Apps for Android,” Swype Opens Its Beta
Oh, the war of words between iPhone and Android fans. How it has preoccupied us this year. I won't take sides now. I own both. (Don't judge.) But I will say this: if you're an Android user, you might want to go now and join Swype's beta.
Context & Ripple Effects
Swype spent 2010 shipping preinstalled on flagship Android handsets while David Pogue asked in July whether the gesture keyboard was 'a revolution'; opening the beta to any Android user turns a bundled OEM feature into something users seek out themselves. The move lands on a platform that has spent the year climbing: Gartner put Android atop the U.S. smartphone OS market by August 2010, and Quantcast's data had it at roughly a quarter of U.S. mobile web browsing against iOS.
It also lands in the middle of the iPhone-versus-Android fan war the year's coverage kept circling, and just under a year after Google's own Nexus One launch framed Android as a platform worth taking personally. A signature input method going from carrier preload to open beta gives Android defenders a concrete differentiator to point at.
First-order effects
- Android users who previously got Swype only if their handset maker preinstalled it can now install it themselves, moving distribution from OEM deals to direct user adoption.
- Swype converts the attention from Pogue's mid-2010 'revolution?' verdict into a self-selected beta pool, trading exclusivity for scale and feedback.
Second-order effects
- Rival Android keyboard developers face pressure to match the open-beta playbook, since input method is one of the few places a user visibly customizes the platform.
- Handset makers lose some of the differentiation value of preloading Swype exclusively, pushing them to compete on other software bundles.
Third-order effects
- If Android's share trajectory through 2010 holds, the operating system layer commoditizes and third-party input and interface software becomes the visible battleground where platforms differentiate.
- A proven market for alternative keyboards on Android sets up the question of whether closed platforms like the iPhone will ever allow equivalent replacement — a fault line in the fan-war debate this story sits inside.
The trend: As Android scales toward OS-market leadership, third-party input methods are emerging as the differentiating software layer on an otherwise shared platform.