Zi Corporation, a leading provider of intelligent interface solutions, today announced the general availability of its Decuma® Alphabetic handwriting recognition software for the Sony Ericsson P800/900/910 series of smartphones. Now available for consumer download through Handango and its more than 100 download portals, Decuma enables users to increase the speed and accuracy of a smartphone’s handwriting input mode. Zi Corporation will be demonstrating Decuma at Booth #4913 at CTIA 2005.

With Decuma handwriting recognition software, handwriting input is now natural and fast, enabling users to focus on the content rather than the writing. Users can closely mimic writing with pen and paper, with letters and words being written and interpreted in a natural flow, allowing for easy editing and correction. Intuitive handwriting recognition is fast becoming a critical driver in the user adoption of smartphones – a market that is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 28% through 2009, reaching a total of 94 million units by 2008, according to technology analyst firm IDC.

“Handwriting recognition can be one of the most frustrating features on many mobile devices,” said Milos Djokovic, CTO and COO for Zi Corporation. “By making our Decuma technology available for Sony Ericsson smartphones, users can immediately improve the speed and accuracy of their phone’s handwriting feature. Decuma even enables users with poor penmanship, a unique slant and orientation, or a shaky hand, to quickly and naturally write on their touch screen-based device.”

Consumer interest in the download availability of the Decuma software has been extremely high, with an inundation of enquiries from users across the world. An Australian asked “When will Decuma be available for the Sony Ericsson P900, I have it on my Palm Tungsten and it is fantastic!” From Hong Kong comes the comment, “I recently came across information on your product in an online forum and it got me really excited-when will it be released?” And from the United Kingdom, “I have checked your website and seen the promotional videos. I am really impressed and interested.” These are just a few of the hundreds of expressions of interest in the unique Decuma handwriting recognition software.

“The Decuma software has been embedded in the Sony CLIÉ handheld for over a year resulting in widespread and enthusiastic consumer adoption. Millions more users will now have the opportunity to use Decuma on their Sony Ericsson smartphones,” reported Glen Morgan, senior vice president of global sales and marketing for Zi Corporation.

Decuma AB was acquired by Zi Corporation in January 2005 as part of its long term strategy of developing software that simplifies and enhances the user experience of mobile devices. Decuma’s innovative handwriting recognition technology complements Zi’s industry-leading predictive text input products, eZiText® and eZiTap™.

The Decuma product portfolio is comprised of three handwriting recognition software products: Decuma Alphabetic for 15 languages, including English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and other western languages; Decuma Chinese for Simplified and Traditional Chinese; and Decuma Japanese, which supports Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana, latin characters, symbols and digits. Decuma products are available for the Palm OS, UIQ for Symbian OS and Windows Mobile for Pocket PC devices.

See our earlier preview of Decuma here.