Smartphone Users Still Searching for the Ultimate Intuitive Interface

(Business News & Technology News, 20 Nov 2008)

The killer app for most smartphone users is not processing power or network access speed—it is ease-of-use and interface simplicity. Interface pioneer Nuance delivered this crucial message to delegates attending the Mobile GSM Congress in Macau.

"Smartphones offer users a bewildering array of choices, but people have to re-learn how to use them every time the change devices. The first manufacturer to get it right will not only set a new and enduring standard, but likely take the lead in sales and revenue as well. Nuance's new XT9 will help bring that goal a step closer," says James Young, Marketing and Business Director, Greater China/Southeast Asia Regions, Mobile and Enterprise Division, Nuance Communications. "Look at the automobile market. There are hundreds of car brands, all using different technologies under the hood. But all of them use the same simple interface—steering wheel, pedals, handbrake, etc. They are simple to use, easy to master and when you learn how to use one you can drive them all."

Young says that the "Holy Grail" for the mobile device market is getting the interface right. "And that's where Nuance new solutions such as XT9 advanced text input come in," he adds. "A decade or more ago, when U.S. Vice President Al Gore famously dubbed the Internet the 'Information Superhighway', the challenge was speed—providing as many people as possible with fast and reliable access to information. Today, with faster networks—broadband, 3G, WiMAX—the highway is in good shape, but the vehicles that use it are still clunky."

Nuance provides complementary input modalities that bypass the basic limitations of the tiny phone keypad and allow simplified text entry through the single "predictive" tap method on the phone keyboard. T9 has already been shipped in over 3 billion devices and is used on a regular basis by over 1 billion people throughout the world.

The new XT9 product has just been adopted by Nokia, Samsung and HTC and the Chinese version of XT9 will be launched in Sharp's new SH9020C Smartphone for the China market. The new Chinese XT9 utilizes various input methods, such as Sentence Pinyin Input: explicit and ambiguous; simplified and traditional Chinese, and Phrasal Stroke: simplified and traditional Chinese; components, wildcard, alternate strokes. Chinese XT9 has been certified by the Chinese government's leading standards body—the Certification Center of the China Electronics Standards Institute—as being compliant with standards GB/T 18031-2000 and GB13000-1-1993.

Nuance's XT9 technology allows users that use more than one language in their messages (a true "bi-lingual" feature)—which includes the majority of educated Asians who speak their own languages as well as English—to type much faster. Its voice recognition technology can even eliminate the need for typing entirely if the user prefers or circumstances dictate.

Click here for more information on the T9 and XT9 software

Click here for more information on Nuance Communications