Most popular IME's

[bumclouds]

Hey there,

I have to make a presentation to my chinese (level 1!) class, and as my topic I have chosen 'chinese & information technology'.

One particular thing I'm having trouble researching is statistics on which are the most popular and commonly used IME's in China.

I've googled for hours now and I can't find anything.

Would somebody be so kind as to shed some light onto this for me? Thanks!

Andrew

[Senzhi]

Not sure if there is a definite answer to this question. Probably it's all based on personal taste.

Also, with MS being dominant in the market, I guess that the MS one is the one mostly used, since many people wouldn't know about nor being interested in any alternatives.

I personally use the MS one, and I'm very satisfied with it: it does all what it needs to do (for me). Which is also why I never checked the other ones. It would only add to resource usage on my tiny laptop, without any substantial benefit to my needs.

[cypherpunks2]

Sure there is one. Well, at least if you count the number of people using it.

I think that in mainland China, most people (especially young people) use phonetic pinyin-based ones, whereas some use radical-based wubi (wubi zixing). I think microsoft pinyin, abc pinyin and sogou pinyin are all popular.

In Taiwan I think most people also use phonetic IMEs, but zhuyin-based. Quite a few use cangjie too, i believe.

In Hong Kong and Guangdong, I have no idea what is popular. I think people use writing pads with digital pens, cantonese phonetic input as well as cangjie, the four courner method.

Of course most westerners use pinyin, although a few brave ones venture into the realm of radical based input methods. (These require you to somewhat rememeber how to draw a character, and works a bit like writing practice, and has the added benefit of being able to type characters you don't know how to pronounce.) Among oversea Chinese communities, I guess pinyin, but who knows?

Really, I wish I had some statistics. Surely there most be some?

[bumclouds]

Okay. The kind of answer i was really after was; which is more popular of the input methods: Wubi, Erbi, Pinyin, etc.

Thanks!

[FadedStardust]

Not sure if there is a definite answer to this question. Probably it's all based on personal taste.

Also, with MS being dominant in the market, I guess that the MS one is the one mostly used, since many people wouldn't know about nor being interested in any alternatives.

I personally use the MS one, and I'm very satisfied with it: it does all what it needs to do (for me). Which is also why I never checked the other ones. It would only add to resource usage on my tiny laptop, without any substantial benefit to my needs.

You'd be surprized at how not true some of these statements are. Firstly, a good deal of the Chinese people I have talked to on QQ (the biggest and most popular Instant Messaging service in China) who use a Pinyin input method use Sogou Pinyin or Google Pinyin (or something else, but those two seem to be the popular ones) and very low opinions on the built-in MS Pinyin input method.

When you have to type a lot of words/sentences at "conversation speed" having an input method with a high amount of sentences/common phrases already known to it and the ability to "remember" words/phrases you use often is crucial. The MS Pinyin just isn't as good at these things as some of the newer/more frequently updated ones.

Also, I myself use Sogou Pinyin and I can tell you that it uses no more resources then then MS one, plus it has the better recognition capabilities, AND it looks better because it has "skins" you can download to make it look however you want.

Another point to make is how many people in the mainland who don't even USE a Pinyin method but a Wubi method; obviously, people don't use the MS "pre-installed" version of this - because there isn't one. I'm afraid I can't be of too much more help on this particular subject as I don't use Wubi and don't know too much about it other then it's kind-of like Cangjie in that you type based on what the characters look like; not what they sound like.

Speaking of which, if the OP is interested, I can tell you a tiny bit about the input methods used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The main method used in Taiwan is Zhuyin Fuhao or the "bopomofo" (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ) method, because as children they learn these symbols instead of pinyin, when first learning how to match the sound of the words to characters; they are also used in dictionaries. The main, and indeed one of the ONLY, Zhuyin methods used is the MS one which, unlike it's Pinyin counterpart, works fairly well.

Cangjie is also used in Taiwan by speed-typers, and in fact was invented there, but is mostly used by people in HK. Like Wubi, Cangjie is used based on how a character looks, not what it sounds like; which is, I hear, a good thing for Cantonese speakers who don't know Mandarin or, at the very least, don't know Pinyin or Zhuyin. I personally like and use this method as I can type fast AND I can type both Traditional and Simplified Characters without ever switching input methods. There are two MS versions installed on Windows XP (don't know about Vista, sorry) but I'm not 100% sure what the difference is as I don't use the MS version - though a lot of people do and I'd say it's probably the most popular. I use a version called "Free Cangjie" (自由倉頡), because it, unlike the MS version (as far as I know), is the one that lets me type both Trad. and Simp. Characters.

There are a few other popular input methods in HK, one is the "Quick" method, which is also called "Simplified Cangjie;" with it you type the first and last letter in a Cangjie code (which can be 1 to 5 letters) then choose the correct character from a list. Which, imho, is no better or faster then sorting through 10's if yi's in a Pinyin method so it seems a little counter-productive. The Quick method is installed on Windows - though the people who make Free Cangjie also have a Free Quick method.

Another is the Q9 method, the only two things I know about it are that you only need to use the number keypad (and therefore a lot of people in HK use it on their cellphones as well as their computers) and that you need to buy it.

I don't know if it's "up and comming" or not but I heard that there is a Jyutping method installed on Vista and I think you can download other versions for XP but I don't really speak Cantonese so I don't know.

To the OP, I hope some of this info helps in your research. You should also look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_input_methods_for_computers

[bumclouds]

FadedStardust, thanks for all your advice. It was very insightful.

At school I am studying Mandarin, so our class is only looking at Simplified characters - and so my presentation will only be about Input Methods and IME's for Simplified characters.

One of the main things I would really like to know is, in Mainland China are Pinyin input methods (Sugou, Google) or Wubi input methods more popular? And is Wubi the most popular input method of the non-pinyin based input methods?

[Senzhi]

Well, I think the Pinyin method is the most popular nowadays, since I've never seen anybody use anything else than the MS one so far.

Of course, there are many (and maybe better) methods, but like anywhere else in the world: everybody uses a PC at the office, but that doesn't mean everybody is computer savvy.

I must admit: I wouldn't have a clue what people use on their PC's at home, only at the workplace.

[FadedStardust]

Well, I think the Pinyin method is the most popular nowadays, since I've never seen anybody use anything else than the MS one so far.

Of course, there are many (and maybe better) methods, but like anywhere else in the world: everybody uses a PC at the office, but that doesn't mean everybody is computer savvy.

I must admit: I wouldn't have a clue what people use on their PC's at home, only at the workplace.

The thing you have to remember here is, most people probably don't have a choice when it comes to software installed at their workplace computers; input method or otherwise, so I'd say that's a pretty poor indication of popularity. For all we know 99% of those workers might grumble to themselves about the fact MS Pinyin is what they have to use at work... though I do admit, I could very well be wrong.

FadedStardust, thanks for all your advice. It was very insightful.

At school I am studying Mandarin, so our class is only looking at Simplified characters - and so my presentation will only be about Input Methods and IME's for Simplified characters.

One of the main things I would really like to know is, in Mainland China are Pinyin input methods (Sugou, Google) or Wubi input methods more popular? And is Wubi the most popular input method of the non-pinyin based input methods?

You are quite welcome.

Just so you know, just because you're studying Mandarin doesn't make Traditional Characters irrelevant... In fact, in Taiwan, the national language is Mandarin but they use Traditional characters not Simplified; so I don't quite understand where you seem to have gotten the notion of (I'm assuming) Mandarin=Simplified Cantonese=Traditional; because it's simply not true.

But I do understand that since you, yourself are only studying Simplified you only want to know about the Simplified input methods popular in the Mainland. As for whether Pinyin or Wubi are more popular... that I honestly don't know, and I don't think any studies have been conducted to find out (though I may be wrong...) But I *think* that Pinyin holds the edge of being easier to learn and being the first method that people encounter so my bet is that it probably is the more popular choice. But that is, of course, just my opinion. I could be wrong... Sorry to not be of more help and good luck with your project (and your Chinese learning in general)!!

[imron]

I remember reading a statistic from not too long ago saying that 14% of computer users on mainland China used a Wubi input method. However, just like there are multiple pinyin-based IMEs, likewise there are several Wubi based IMEs. I'm not sure if there's really an accurate breakdown for each individidual IME, however after Pinyin input methods, Wubi would be the next most popular.

@Senzhi, you really should try out the Sogou or Google IMEs. You don't know what you're missing until you've tried them. The MS one really is crap in comparison.

[Senzhi]

The thing you have to remember here is, most people probably don't have a choice when it comes to software installed at their workplace computers; input method or otherwise, so I'd say that's a pretty poor indication of popularity. For all we know 99% of those workers might grumble to themselves about the fact MS Pinyin is what they have to use at work...

You could very well be right here. It's difficult to determine ... many people, including me (sometimes), simply grumble because they have to work.

@Senzhi, you really should try out the Sogou or Google IMEs. You don't know what you're missing until you've tried them. The MS one really is crap in comparison.

Will give it a shot Imron. I usually try to keep my T60 as clean and simple as possible, so if I don't need it, I avoid to install extra browsers, media players, etc.

Will try both and give feedback. By the way, didn't we have a forum poll before on popular IME's?

[Senzhi]

Tried both.

I admit both are very responsive and have added value compared to the MS one. Unfortunately, and unless I missed something, both only have their interfaces and settings in Chinese, which, for me, with my (still) poor Chinese skills, makes it cumbersome and time consuming.

So I'm back to the MS one: it does what it needs to do, and that's all I really need (so far).

One negative point about the Sogou one: upon uninstalling, it changed my regional language settings to Chinese and removed all my other settings. That's really a no go in my opinion. I guess Sogou only made the software with Chinese people in mind ...

[FadedStardust]

Tried both.

I admit both are very responsive and have added value compared to the MS one. Unfortunately, and unless I missed something, both only have their interfaces and settings in Chinese, which, for me, with my (still) poor Chinese skills, makes it cumbersome and time consuming.

So I'm back to the MS one: it does what it needs to do, and that's all I really need (so far).

One negative point about the Sogou one: upon uninstalling, it changed my regional language settings to Chinese and removed all my other settings. That's really a no go in my opinion. I guess Sogou only made the software with Chinese people in mind ...

I'm sorry to hear that uninstalling messed up your computer... I had no idea it would do that as I've never uninstalled it...

I personally think that having the settings in Chinese is a good thing because it "forces" me to learn enough characters/words to use it; or that's the theory anyways, I think I just have the interface/settings memorized like I do with most english programs; I could probably find my way around in french/arabic/thai/korean (none of which I speak or read) as well as I can in english or chinese simply because I know where everything is.

And, imho, it's not that difficult to find your way around programs after playing with them for a few days, even if your not fluent in the language of the interface... but everyone's different.

If the MS Pinyin works for you and you're comfortable and don't want/need to change then by all means, use it. Your computer should work FOR you not AGAINST you! ;)