Zi Corporation, a provider of intelligent interface solutions, recently announced that its eZiText predictive text technology has been chosen by two subsidiaries of Legend Group Limited as the text messaging standard for its advanced smart phone product line under the new Lenovo brand.

Legend plans to launch the first Lenovo smart phone within this quarter with two more models expected to enter the market in 2004.

Legend selected eZiText for inclusion in its new smart phone products because it offers users a quick, easy and personalized text input experience and because Zi provides a high level of local support and service. The operating system for the Lenovo line of smart phones is the Microsoft Windows Mobile – Pocket PC platform and the new smart phone will offer a wide variety of functionality along with eZiText, including a large color screen, handwriting recognition, an easy connection to external camera and multiple sending of multimedia messaging service (MMS). Legend has initially embedded the first smart phone model with simplified Chinese for all the applications on the phone available for use in the "flip closed" mode.

Zi established a relationship with Legend more than three years ago with the licensing of eZiText for use in Legend's set-top boxes for interactive televisions. This relationship was expanded at the end of last year with the selection and integration of eZiText in Legend's mobile handsets.