Swypes Business Model. Lets petition them to change it.

[KungFuGeek]

Ok, I'm sure everybody knows about swype by now and anybody that has tried it seems to love it myself included.

There is one slight problem though. Swype will never be officially available with their current business model. According to a post on their website

Unofficial Leak: Swype for Android

We did not release this software to the broader market, as our preferred business model is OEM preload of software on devices.

I can think of only one way to have a decent chance of changing their business model, and that is to have everybody that wants them to put it on the market send them a polite email requesting it.

On their website they list this email address. [email protected]

I think that everybody that likes swype and would be willing to spend money on it should go ahead and send them an email stating how much you like swype and that if it was officially available on the market you would be willing to buy it.

If they start getting hundreds of emails requesting it, I highly doubt that they will continue to ignore the demand from users that are using "unsupported" android phones.

 

[hipkik]

The way I see it is, as long as there's the interwebz people will leak it so it will be available whether legal or not...if they don't want to add it to the market and potentially make $$ off of us, oh well their loss

 

[Corinacakes]

if they don't want to add it to the market and potentially make $$ off of us, oh well their loss

Yah well there's lots of people that are too scared to put an app on their phone if they dont get it from the market. this is such a great one that i think it's a shame they dont have it in the market for ppl like my sister. i had to sneak and put it on hers and after initially going ape on me she LUVS it and just like me...would never go back to the old way.

 

[Shel]

If they start getting hundreds of emails requesting it, I highly doubt that they will continue to ignore the demand from users that are using "unsupported" android phones.

This is a company that obviously seems to know what they're doing. They just raised an additional $5M in December.

I would imagine that they've given quite a bit of thought to their business model, and determined that it's most profitable selling Swipe to OEM's rather then directly to customers.

It seems they've already had it released to one device, the Samsung Omnia II.

Now, I could be wrong, but I'd imagine that when they made a deal with Samsung to sell their software for use on the Omnia, that Samsung was told that it would NOT be available to every Android user, or Windows Mobile user, or any other user out there, that it would only be available on a limited number of devices... I'm sure Samsung paid for the use of Swype, and included in their calculation of whether or not it was worth paying for, was the promise of (some type of limited) exclusivity.

Sorry... I highly doubt a few hundred, or thousand e-mails will suddenly convince the developers to change their entire business model.

 

[KungFuGeek]

You'd be surprised what a few emails can do. Good companies listen to feedback. If every other email that comes into their general email box is about releasing swype on the android market they will pay attention.

If they have an exclusivity contract with samsung (which i doubt as it would hamstring them and prevent them from getting their program on anything else which eliminates a very large portion of potential users) it would very unlikely be a perpetual contract.

I'm betting their prefered business model of getting the OEMs to preload it is due to them thinking that it will get better distribution than just putting it on the market where people may or may not find out about it.

My email to them didn't ask for them to abandon their business model, it asked for them to consider releasing it via the market in addition to trying to get OEMs to preload it.

I know they can see alot of the hype out there and they know their is desire, but seeing it on blogs is alot different than getting your info email address swamped by requests to release it to the public.

Here's the thing though. Sending out an email takes 3 minutes (even less if somebody posts a template email to use), and it has no negatives, but it has potential positives.

 

[ldimick]

Let's think about this. Sell it to a few thousand people for low $$$ and deal with thousands of complaints in thousands of transactions, or sell it to one customer in one transaction.

Don't need a calculator to figure this one out!

 

[billyk]

Wouldn't it be the case that if they don't sell it directly to customers, someone else will? I think there already is a competitor to Swype now.

If it was in the Market, I'd buy it now, given all the good reviews lately.

 

[KungFuGeek]

Let's think about this. Sell it to a few thousand people for low $$$ and deal with thousands of complaints in thousands of transactions, or sell it to one customer in one transaction.

Don't need a calculator to figure this one out!

Actually, think about it this way, sell it to one customer with thousands of users, then in addition sell it to hundreds of thousands for low $$$.

Currently their business model excludes every existing android phone. Swype is an awesome app, but its not awesome enough for most people to ditch their existing phone / contract to buy a phone with it.

I'm seriously surprised by all the negitivity. How hard is it to write an email?

 

[wil318466]

In all honesty - its their software, its up to them what to do with it. Fair is fair. If you and me invented it and we wanted to do something specific with it, well, who is to tell us that we can't do that?

Don't get me wrong.. I would pay a FEW dollars for this one. In fact, I'd pay 10 bucks for it. I love it. I mean, I REALLY like it.

Why they want to do it the way they do? Who knows.. but in the end, its their right.

-Wil

 

[ThermalGuy]

Swype OEM only?

I sent an email. Ya never know!:icon_ devil:

 

[hughesjr]

Their model is that they will sell it to Motorola to include as the default keyboard on Droid or other models. They think that is the best way for them to make money. Not sure how someone pointing this out is being negative.

Now, if people want to e-mail them (or leave them messages on twitter, etc.) asking them about getting into android market, then more power to them ... but with the vast majority of users wanting only free apps, I am not sure it is in their best interest to be in the market. It would seem that they are on every device if they get the OEM to put it on there, and only on a smaller subset if they are on the market.

 

[JhankG]

I have it on my phone, so I don't really care what their business model is.

 

[Donkey Hodie]

Here's how I look at it: I hope they put a supported version on the market, I'd definitely buy it but if they decide not to for reasons that make business sense to them, I've got a version that works and that I am happy with. If it breaks in future releases due to compatibility issues I expect fixes and/or new versions will become available in the same way this one did.

 

[Nedaroth]

quote: PS. Our lawyer has asked us to remind everyone about copyright infringement and to inform you that Swype reserves all of its rights.

At this point i don't think they give a damn about our emails:icon_eek:

 

[Shel]

Any of you see this article?

It is from November, so perhaps it's out of date and no longer relevant, but...