KeyPoint Technologies offers an alternative text input application called ‘Adaptxt‘ which intends to help users type on their mobile quickly and accurately. The app came out of public beta recently and offers keyboards for Android phones, Android tablets and Symbian phones.
The Android version is available as a free download on the Google Play Store (Phone & Tablet), GetJar Marketplace (Phone & Tablet) and Amazon Appstore while the Symbian version is available for Rs 5 on the Nokia Store.
What’s particularly interesting though is that the app offers keyboards for 68 languages including 13 Indic languages like Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu among others and transliterated Indian languages including Hinglish (Hindi + English), Kanglish (Kannada + English), Tenglish (Telugu + English), Tanglish (Tamil + English), Manglish (Malayalam + English), Odinglish (Oriya + English) and Marathinglish (Marathi + English).
Features: Besides the language keyboards and industry-specific dictionaries, Adaptxt also offers various other text input features like text prediction, word completions, error corrections, accented suggestions, ability to save new words into dictionaries, URL and Acronym suggestions, automatic text replacement, various keyboard layouts and personalized word suggestions based on social networking accounts, contacts and text messages.
It also offers a private mode which prevents the app from learning sensitive data and adding it to the phone dictionary. On the tablet, the app also provides a split keyboard layout and the ability to reposition the suggestion bar below or above the keyboard.
In conversation with Medianama, Sumit Goswami, KeyPoint Technologies CEO talked about the company’s approach, competitors, OEM tie-ups and monetization strategy among others. Here are some notes from the Interview:
– On Competitors: Goswami stated that Adaptxt has always focused on the linguistic part of the text input method and on building custom industry-specific dictionaries, unlike its competitors Swiftkey and Swype. He stated that the app currently offers 35 industry specific keyboards for Business, Finance, Legal, Telecom, Medical, and Sports profession. In addition, the app also offers an SMS lingo-based keyboard which claims to have more than 3,000 abbreviations like as lol, btw, gr8 among others.
– On Monetization: Although the app is out of beta, Goswami stated that they don’t intend to charge users for the app and that Adaptxt will continue to be available for free. Instead, they intend to generate revenue by inking OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and telco deals globally to embed the app to mobile phones. Goswami stated this approach allows them to deliver a tight app integration and a customizable interface based on the manufacturer’s preference.
Goswami stated that they are already working with one of the largest OEMs in Japan, Korea, United States and Europe, and several carriers in the United States and Europe although he refused to reveal any specific names. The company currently has no partnership in place with any of the Indian OEMs but Goswami pointed out that India is still a new market for them, since the company officially started its commercial operations in the country around 3-4 months ago.
– On Paid Add-Ons: Adaptxt currently offers these language and industry-specific keyboards as add-ons, available through the add-on manager present in the app’s settings menu. Goswami stated that the app currently offers only free add-ons but going forward, they do intend to offer paid add-ons like various enterprise features and keyboard themes to customers through in-app purchase mechanism.
– On Tie-ups with connected device makers: Goswami stated that besides mobile devices, they have also tied up with other connected device makers globally like makers of Smart TVs and smart refrigerators to pre-embed the app and they intend to do the same in India.
– Mobile Platforms: Goswami mentioned that they initially started off with the Symbian mobile platform and later extended the application to Android. He claimed that the application has registered a million plus downloads till now, of which the Android app accounts for 70% of the downloads while the Symbian app accounts for 30% the downloads.
– On OpenAdaptxt: Adaptxt also offers an open source platform called OpenAdaptxt, through which OEMs, solution providers and third party app developers in the text input & linguistic space, can integrate Adaptxt’s prediction engine and app features within their devices and mobile applications.
Goswami stated that they started off this initiative about an year ago and the platform currently supports all major platforms including iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Linux among others. He stated that a Korean company W10 had used this platform to develop a korean keyboard for its watches, although he refused to share the number of companies who are currently using this platform on their mobile apps or other hardware devices.
