Despite the competition, a former computer science professor who created the first smartphone to support Tibetan text is pleased that the introduction of a bevy of new fonts is giving users more options to express themselves in their own language.

"With Tibetan available on many Chinese smartphones, it has greatly popularized the use of Tibetan in China," said Lobsang, who founded Luozang Science and Technology in 2008.

For many years, Lobsang's Luozang brand of smartphone and the iPhone were the only two mobile phones supporting Tibetan. And the Luozang, marketed first in 2011, was the only one with settings in Tibetan.