October 15, 2005
Local Languages on cell phones
This is interesting, from CIOL, on how Nokia and Samsung are developping cell phones which support several local languages in India .
"With local language computing becoming a reality, the trend of providing local/regional language support is becoming increasingly popular with mobile phones.
"According to Nokia India Pvt Ltd MD Sanjeev Sharma, “All entry and mid-range phones from Nokia support Hindi. Other phones support Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil and Bengali while the Nokia 6030 supports nine-language user interface. With this, we cover about 80 percent of the Indian population.”
He added, “Currently, phones supporting local languages are being sold in the States where that specific language is being spoken. The company is planning to market some phones, which support all the regional languages, all over India. For this, the company is currently studying the demand pattern.”
Samsung is also providing local language support on many of its phones. Samsung D500, besides supporting messaging in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Bengali and Punjabi, also supports menu in Gujarati and Kannada.
The Samsung N700 supports five different regional languages and features a multi-language dictionary to support easy and intuitive SMS."
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