One of the things I fail to understand is why neither of the major smartphone operating systems come with a keyboard or at least the diacritical marked letters for Esperanto. Looking at my phone, It has keyboards to support languages spoken in less places than Esperanto, so why i have to download a separate application to type with those marks is confusing. Anyone have any answers to why or perhaps wish to start a petition?
Thanks

Because Esperanto isn't a real language.

(That was snark, don't throw things at me)

More seriously, it's possible that the smartphone manufacturers either don't know about Esperanto or don't think there are enough people using it to warrant creating a keyboard with hat letters on it. This sounds like a great aftermarket opportunity for a developer who can figure out the keyboard API and hook into it to add the circumflected characters.

Link to Android and an Esperanto Keyboard

Read the following article for more information about this.

Well, fwiw, there is ĝusta-klavaro for iOS, which is sort of a mini-word processor; allows the user to compose notes and text messages, etc. Unfortunately, you still have to copy and paste your output into whatever other app you're using, so it's not so convenient, but at least you do have some sort of option there...

I don't think this is just about the hassle of creating a circumflex-friendly keyboard, font, etc. Part of the appeal of smartphones is the auto-correct feature, which tries to fix some of the more common typos and misspellings of the user. To create an E-o friendly keyboard would require a developer whose Esperanto is extremely good, as well as being familiar enough with the kinesics of typing Esperante. It is (unfortunately) a fairly high amount of $$ being sunk into serving a fairly small market--especially as that market is fragmented all over the world. E.g., I'm sure that there are many would-be smartphone users in countries which still do not (officially) have the iPhone--so it would seem to be something which only serves perhaps 10,000 people in North America, perhaps 20,000 in Europe...does a relative "hotspot" for Esperanto like say, Brazil, even have one or more official iPhone carriers? Not sure, myself...

Forigite

creedelambard:Because Esperanto isn't a real language.

(That was snark, don't throw things at me)

More seriously, it's possible that the smartphone manufacturers either don't know about Esperanto or don't think there are enough people using it to warrant creating a keyboard with hat letters on it. This sounds like a great aftermarket opportunity for a developer who can figure out the keyboard API and hook into it to add the circumflected characters.

But, for example, my smartphone has a keyboard for the Cherokee language on it. Cherokee only has a spoken population of about 16,400 people as of 12 years ago. According to the Wikipedia article, apparently 3 men went to Apple and helped them incorporate the keyboard into their operating system. It wouldnt hurt to try suggesting it, but i do not have enough knowledge of Esperanto nor of programming to be able to contribute to this project. I'm certain, however, that there is somebody out there who can.