Starting from today TouchType Ltd, developers of one of the bestselling Android apps, has announced it will no longer charge for downloads of its software keyboard. The highly regarded SwiftKey replacement keyboard input method app was previously £2.99, now it will be offered for free worldwide.
Having long been one of the most popular paid apps on Google's Play Store, London startup TouchType Ltd. has decided to make its money by paid keyboard themes, whilst offering the app for free, as part of an effort to reinvigorate its business. The app boasts a highly accurate autocorrect function, net-word prediction and other features such as SwiftKey Flow, the company's version of 'Swype'.
Along with the price tag disposal, the app has also been updated with features for better user customisation. This includes the ability to predict how the user expresses emotions, by proposing emoticons in addition to the textual content. The app's word prediction engine was also improved along with new extra languages, bringing the total number of supported languages to 66.
The company has recently raised $17.6 million in venture capital funding, and signed a deal with Samsung, earlier this year, to provide keyboards on 100 million devices before 2015, reports the Independent.
"We have made the decision to go free to better enable everyone, everywhere, to use SwiftKey’s market-leading technology without payment being a barrier. We're focused not only on reaching more users with our powerful technology, but on building great content and features to engage them," Jon Reynolds, co-founder and CEO of SwiftKey, said in an official statement.
For those of us who paid for the app previously, we will be getting a 'Premier Pack' of 10 themes free of charge. (It is the only app, or digital item, I have ever bought from Google Play, so this is some consolation for this tightwad.)
TouchType also confirmed that a version of SwiftKey for Apple iOS 8 is currently in development, "Are we going to build SwiftKey Keyboard for iOS8? Of course we are. We’ve already started," said the founders in a statement issued after the recent WWDC. "We’re delighted Apple has decided to embrace the importance of opening its platform to third party keyboards."
These 'Freemium' business model apps are slowly but surely catching on across the industry, as more and more developers are now offering apps for free and charging users for add-on capability or customisation.
"As we go global, there’s an unwillingness of consumers to pay for an app that they aren’t sure they need," Joe Braidwood, chief marketing officer for SwiftKey said. Braidwood added that, by building a theme store, more people should end up spending money on the app.
