IntoMobile

Breaking news, information, and analysis on the latest mobile phones and mobile technology

Open NavigationOpen Search
  • Home
  • Platforms
    • iOS / iPhone OS
    • Android
    • Windows Phone
    • BlackBerry OS
  • Hardware
    • New Hardware
    • Tablets
    • Reviews
    • Rumors
  • Carriers
    • AT&T
    • Sprint
    • T-Mobile
    • Verizon
  • Manufacturers
    • Apple
    • Samsung
    • HTC
    • LG
    • Motorola
  • Best VPNs
    • Best VPNs for iPhone
    • Best VPNs for Android

Nuance just acquired Swype for “approximately $100 million”, but what are they going to do with it?

October 7, 2011 by Stefan Constantinescu - Leave a Comment

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook ( 0 shares )

Nuance, a company that many people know thanks to their Dragon NaturallySpeaking software, has just confirmed to This is my next that they’ve acquired Swype for “approximately $100 million”. Swype, for those who may not be familiar with their work, was invented by the same dude who created T9. With Swype you simply draw a continuous line on the letters that form a word and then boom, said word appears on your screen. For some people, it’s the only way they’ll ever input text on a mobile device. For others, it’s an impressive piece of software to show their friends, but after a week they go back to pecking away on their traditional onscreen keyboard. Swype’s goal is to be preloaded on all portable devices, in much the same way that practically all featurephones and quite a few number of smartphones come with T9. The thing we don’t understand is why would a company that’s so laser focused on voice buy a company that’s all about touching your screen?

Earlier this week Apple announced the iPhone 4S and one of the features that stood out was Siri, a personal assistant that you can talk to using natural language. It’ll even talk back to you, so you can engage in an actual conversation with your Jesus Phone. We’re upset that Siri requires an iPhone 4S, and that you can’t input Siri commands via text, but whatever. Siri was purchased by Apple back in 2010. Before the acquisition, and some suspect that this is still true today, Siri depended on Nuance for transcribing your voice and feeding it to Siri’s artificial intelligence algorithms. So again, we’ve got to state our confusion as to why Nuance is picking up a company that’s all about text input.

Update: A little bit of research shows that Nuance bought the original company that came up with T9 back in 2007, so their acquisition of Swype now makes more sense.

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook ( 0 shares )

Back to top ▴

Back to top ▴

Follow IntoMobile

38k
36k
4k
13k
12k

Most Recent Posts

  • iPhone No Sound: Tips on How to Fix this Common Issue
  • The newest iOS – things you surely did not know
  • Transferring money through mobile: Why digital wallets are the future of commerce?
  • Review: Shine laser light Bluetooth headphones
  • Neptune Suite smart watch with phone and tablet screens killing it at Indiegogo

Get Updates Via E-Mail

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

About IntoMobile

  • About IntoMobile
  • Contact IntoMobile
  • Send us News Tips
  • Privacy Policy

Social Links

  • IntoMobile on Facebook
  • IntoMobile on Twitter
  • IntoMobile on Google+
  • IntoMobile on YouTube

Copyright © 2006-2021 IntoMobile. All rights reserved.