Wikimedia Mobile engineering/Language support

See also the mobile localization roadmap and mobile page views per language stats.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Language support in mobile platforms requires special attention since it defines the potential scope of the Wikimedia content and participation.

The meaning of Language Support
"Language support" is actually a vague term that may include different elements:


 * Fonts supported in browser.
 * Text input supported.
 * Text prediction supported.
 * Dictionaries supported.

Other elements to consider are:


 * Can the user install additional fonts, virtual keyboards, text prediction and orthography dictionaries?
 * Can the user get the supported languages anywhere or only in certain countries?

Usually high end devices get a wider support of languages out of the box regardless of the country of purchase, and can be expandable via free of charge or commercial language support packs. Usually the low end devices, with more demanding constraints, have language support specific to the market where they are sold and are not easily expandable - or not expandable at all.

It is relatively simple to reach the languages used by 90% of the non-mobile Wikimedia pages downloaded ([http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthly.htm see stats), but mobile devices represent a good opportunity to reach the speakers of dozens of languages that are starting to use the mobile Internet even without having used a standard computer before.

Legend / instructions

 * Languages are sorted by scripts but the reality is more complicated since there are script variants, same language written in different scripts, etc. Feel free adding more details in the Observations.
 * Platforms supporting web fonts in the browser must be able to display the fonts in any script used in Wikimedia projects.
 * Testers: if you are official maintainers of the browser tested please add the name of your company / organization to your username.
 * Values used:
 * F: fonts displayed
 * I: text input
 * P: text prediction
 * D: orthographic dictionary
 * black font: works out of the box
 * blue font: installable & stable
 * green fonts: installable BUT unstable, geeky, etc.
 * orange fonts: project started, nothing to test yet

$FIXME: how should we apply font colors in this Meta-Wiki? --Qgil 23:27, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Observations
Add here any comments you want to add to the table. Keep the alphabetical sorting of platforms / languages and sign your comment, please.

Series 40
Even if Series 40 has in total a formidable range of language support, each device is subject to a specific regional language pack.--Qgil 23:55, 5 April 2011 (UTC)