Handwriting recognition on the iPhone is one thing, but according to what appears to be a new iPhone firmware, the Apple cell phone could soon be recognizing characters that aren’t English. The build number, from what we can gather, is 5A258f (catchy, I know) and it seems to include Chinese input methods.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this latest iPhone firmware build is that the handwriting recognition appears to be restricted to Chinese. There’s no apparent support for Japanese or English, though I imagine that it wouldn’t take too much for Cupertino to take that leap.

In any case, is this new firmware pointing toward the possible launch of the Apple iPhone in China? Maybe even in time for the Beijing Olympics? They have to be tired of all those knockoffs and clones by now…