China's Ministry of Information Industry is going to strengthen the local mobile phone text input method technology through the introduction of new policies.

Last week, MII convened experts, telecom operators and nearly all mobile phone manufacturers in China for a meeting in Beijing to collect their opinions on the national standard called "General Requirement on Digital Keyboard-Based Chinese Character Input Technology" to further consummate the relevant Chinese input standards and push forward its industrialization.

At present, there are up to 500 million mobile phones in China, but 90% of the Chinese input software market has been occupied by foreign companies. Based on the patent fee of US$1-$3 for each mobile phone, Chinese mobile phone manufacturers need to pay foreign companies as much as CNY10 billion each year for using their input patents.

MII says a relevant technology standard regarding Chinese character input will be worked out as soon as possible to help boost the advancement of Chinese text input technology.