Swype and Genius Texting: The future for touchscreen texting?

Samsung’s new Omnia II phone looks to introduce a novel and intuitive way to text, designed specifically for touchscreens.

Called Genius Texting, a user places their finger on the first letter of the word they wish to write, then drags it around an onscreen QWERTY keyboard to each consecutive letter, only releasing their finger once the word is finished.

It takes a little getting used to, but Swype, the Seattle based company behind the “magic wand” texting, claim that speeds of up to 50 words per minute can be achieved using the new system. Advanced users can also master other swiping gestures to include capitalisation and other elements of punctuation.

So far only the Windows 6.5 Samsung Omnia II features the system, but Genius Texting will be available on Nokia Symbian handsets in early 2010.

Via: ShinyShiny

Here it is in action up against the iPhone