Zi Corporation, a provider of intelligent interface solutions, has today announced a new license agreement for its predictive text products, eZiText and eZiType with Norway-based Trolltech ASA.
Zi Corporation's eZiText and eZiType have been integrated on Qtopia Phone Edition, an application platform and user interface for Linux-based devices, to offer advanced text entry for Chinese and alphabetic languages. Trolltech has integrated eZiText and eZiType as part of the Qtopia Greensuite initiative, which offers pre-integrated market leading partner components on top of Qtopia Phone Edition.
Qtopia Phone Edition is developed by Trolltech for device manufacturers that wish to enable faster handset development and commercial deployment.
eZiText and eZiType will be the integrated text input tools available as part of the Qtopia Greensuite initiative and includes features such as word completion, dual language prediction and auto-correction. Zi will receive royalties for every handset enabled with eZiText and eZiType that is sold through Trolltech's channels.
This latest integration comes less than a year after Trolltech announced eZiText on its Qtopia Greenphone project, demonstrating how quickly users can draft text messages, thereby improving device usability.
Haavard Nord, Trolltech CEO, commented, "With the Qtopia Greensuite initiative, we are looking to offer device manufacturers the most comprehensive application platform for efficiently creating Linux-based devices. In order to do so, we need to work with industry-leading partners. Zi has shown through its work with us on the Greenphone last year that it offers a complete solution that is in high demand, so we are extremely pleased to feature its software."
"Following the success of eZiText and Decuma on the Greenphone, we are delighted that Trolltech has chosen to take our solution to the next level and integrate it onto its UI platform," said Milos Djokovic, President and CEO of Zi Corporation. "The Qtopia Greensuite initiative provides an all-in-one solution for handset integration, which helps accelerate the development process. With the addition of eZiType, Linux developers will have access to exceptional predictive text software."
ABI Research has predicted that Linux will power about 31 percent of all Smartphones sold in 2012, and by then will have shipped in 331 million devices. It also forecasts 75 percent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) for Linux in Smartphones through 2012, making it the fastest-growing OS in the sector.
At the end of 2006, it was reported that several million Qtopia-based devices have shipped to date, and Qtopia has become the de-facto standard for Linux handset makers with 120 manufacturers building Qtopia devices – 40 of which are mobile phones.