Tegic Communications Inc is to make its text input technology available for 3Com Inc’s PalmPilot hand held computer. 3Com will not license the technology and make it standard for all PalmPilot devices, as reports circulating at the beginning of the week suggested, but will instead endorse it. Seattle, Washington-based Tegic has developed the technology, called T9 because of the nine keys it employs, to enable users to input text by using a pad that resembles a telephone key pad. It is applied to the PalmPilot device, after it has been sold. Each key contains multiple letters and the user has to hit the key only once to access the letter they want – the T9 algorithm then automatically determines from all the possible variations which word is being typed. The software protocol within T9 matches the keystrokes with completed words from a database containing 60,000 words. According to Tegic’s vice president of sales and marketing, Don Davidge T9 is easier to use than the PalmPilot’s existing handwriting recognition software because the keys are bigger and there are fewer keys than on a conventional telephone pad. The software is sold into the wireless handset and handheld device market, and Davidge believes there is a bigger market opportunity in the wireless handset space and can see T9 emerging as a standard as the market continues to grow. Tegic was founded in 1995 to develop and market text input technologies, and began licensing the T9 text input software in 1996. It is a privately held company with around 35 staff. Licensees of the technology include Nokia Oy, who last week said it will use T9 for forthcoming communications devices. Philips Electronics NV is also set to announce T9 licensing for its Nino 300 Personal Companion handheld device. Texas Instruments Inc was on of the first T9 adopter, and its Avigo device ships with the technology as standard. Tegic will be demonstrating PalmPilot T9-compliant software on 3Com’s stand at the PC Expo show in New York this week. Davidge said Tegic has received hundreds of emails from existing PalmPilot users who are interested in adopting the T9 technology, since it said it would make the software compatible. The company says existing users will be able to plug T9 in and start working immediately. T9 is expected to be available for the PalmPilot in the third quarter.
