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Official version of Swype?

Swype (the company) has said that they have no near-term plans to support a stand-alone app, whether it be free or paid. That means the only legal means of using swype (aside from being a beta tester) is to hope it's bundled with a particular phone. Directly from their FAQ:


How can I buy Swype? / When will Swype be on the Android market?

We have considered a direct-download sales model, but there are two challenges to that approach:


  • Customer Support. Providing Swype users with the level of professional support they deserve is a priority for us. We're still a small (but quickly growing!) company, and we don't have the resources necessary to support a full end-user sales model. It is much more efficent for us to focus on improving Swype and to partner with large organizations like Samsung and T-Mobile who already have customer support structures in place.
  • Device integration. Swype isn't just an app; it's a keyboard - the most widely used piece of software on a device. It interacts with nearly every single application on the phone. As such, it's more like a system component than an application. For each device release we do a tremendous amount of testing and we *always* find issues due to the varying components - the OS version, the device hardware, the OEM UI implementation, etc. In addition, some features can't be implemented without an OEM's engineering assistance. We end up doing a large amount of work on each device to be sure that you have a great experience entering text using Swype.
So, we appreciate your enthusiasm, but we are not ready to do direct-downloads at this time.
 
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Give Slide IT a try, I too was envious of a coworker who had swype installed on his phone, and I could not get it because no download was available. I heard about SlideIT, and it works awesome! In the market BTW.

You've used both SlideIT and Swype (or have just seen it on your friend's phone?) and prefer the former? I know of SlideIt and have been curious. I've done well enough with Swype and it's hard to imagine anything being superior. I take it SlideIT works in the same basic manner?
 
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