MUMBAI: Tegic communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of America Online (AOL), today announced that O2 - a leading manufacturer of converged mobile devices - has launched the new Xda Zinc with an XT9 mobile interface in India.

With this joint announcement O2 becomes the first Microsoft Windows mobile device manufacturer to launch a product featuring the XT9 application in India.

Besides 3G connectivity, it also offers enhanced efficiency and ease of messaging with a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, 520MHz Intel processor, built-in Wireless LAN and applications like O2 Phone Plus and O2 Message Plus. The XT9 solution enhances the device‘s usability and makes communications easier.

By making it simpler to type words and phrases, the XT9 interface makes it easier to enjoy popular content and wireless services such as mobile web browsing, search and messaging on the latest Xda Zinc.

AOL Mobile senior country manager (India) Mridul Srivastava said, "With the success of the availability of T9 text input our focus is to replicate and further our goal of making text input on PDA mobile phones more simple and fast."

O2‘s Country Manager (India) Myilravanan Nathar said, "India is a vital and exploding market for O2. We are positive that the usability of XT9 mobile interface application, combined with the cutting-edge features of the Xda Zinc, will lead this new technology wave."

T9 text input a character based messaging software, is a flagship product of Tegic and is available in more than 60 languages. By incorporating T9 software into mobile communications products, companies are solving the fundamental problem of how to quickly and easily send mobile messages and browse the Web.