While some mobile phone lovers lusted over the iPhone 3G that does not have a real keyboard, texters tapped out phrases in quick time during The Second Annual LG National Texting
Competition.
Beating more than 15,000 entrants, Nathan Schwartz, a 20-year-old
winner of $50,000 in prize money. In one minute, he texted 154 mixed characters including punctuation.
The winning phrase was "Does everybody here know the alphabet? Let's
text. Here it goes...AbcDeFghiJKlmNoPQrStuvWXy & Z! Now I know my A-B-C's,
next time won't you text with me?" The contestants used any LG phones that
featured full QWERTY keypads including the enV2, enV and Voyager.
"When I heard that I won I just wanted to scream," said winner
Nathan Schwartz. "I called my mom as the confetti was falling on stage. I
am really looking forward to spending some of that prize money and I think it
will be fun to tell all of my friends and family that I am the fastest texter in
the country!"
The expanded qualifying rounds and MTV component included in this year's
texting competition brought in some serious challengers as well as
edge-of-your-seat excitement throughout the competition. With double the prize
money of last year's competition it's no wonder that the intensity of the event
was unprecedented.
In similar fashion to last years competition, contestants were asked to type
out phrases on their LG handsets exactly as they appeared on an overhead LG
plasma screens without typos or abbreviations. The first contestant to complete
their phrase accurately would advance to the next round until Schwartz took
home the gold.
The contest took place in the Roseland Ballroom in
York City
that had an activated LG phone.