They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In which case, Swype should be pretty damn flattered right now. Nuance is better known for it’s voice powered applications on mobile, but it also has a range of T9 predictive text applications. And with the possibility that text entry might be revolutionised by Swype, I guess Nuance decided it wants some of that action.
What’s this now?
Nuance T9 Trace allows you to enter text incredibly quickly on a touch-screen keypad. It takes the idea of entering words letter by letter and throws it out a window. Trace allows you to enter entire words with a single gesture. You simply “trace” a single, continuous line through all of the letters in your word, and the predictive technology behind Nuance will figure out what word you’re entering and put it on the screen. If there are multiple words that can be predicted from the line you traced, you’ll get offered a list of options. I got to test Trace at MWC, and including the time spent choosing the correct word from a list, the entry of even short words was much faster… oh wait, sorry. I meant I got to test SWYPE at MWC. Sorry about that. It’s confusing because Trace is so similar.
There’s a video here of Trace in action:
Damn, I did it again! Sorry, that’s Swype.
What we think?
Sorry for all the sarcasm above, but Nuance genuinely has just ripped Swype off here. Even the name of the Nuance product is another word for “copy”. The danger here is that Nuance has a far better base of manufacturer and OEM deals in place. It could actually get it’s solution onto phones on a much larger scale and a far greater speed than Swype.
