India's cellphones for the illiterate

Over a third of the population of India can't read, but that shouldn't stop them from being able to participate in the cellphone mania that has swept the sub-continent. Reliance Infocomm has some new voice-recognition software for handsets out that works with many of the languages and dialects spoken by the illiterate poor of India (most speech-recognition software out there is for English speakers), and lets them just say the name of who they want to call and it automatically dials it. Since someone who can't read might not be able to afford a new cellphone that works with the software (or be able to program the phone with each of their contacts' names and numbers in the first place),
they're also working on a version that pulls up names and phone numbers over the network.

PS – And perhaps assuming a bit too much about their audience, the article in Rediff.com about this starts out:
"Illiterate but want to use a mobile phone?" Hey, if I couldn't read, do you think I'd waste my time staring blankly at your website, trying to figure out what everything means?

[Via Textually.org]