Android and external keyboards - No luck if you are not from the US

Google added the ability to connect a USB or Bluetooth keyboard to an Android device some versions back. They decided to include one and only one keyboard layout, the US QWERTY layout. It was up to the OEM’s to add more if they found it necessary. Not many did. This means that if you live outside the US and maybe Great Brittan, you are out of luck if you want to connect a local keyboard to your Android phone or tablet. Sure it will work, but none of the local characters will be there.

Asus did a lot of work to correct this on their Transformer and Transformer Prime. Samsung have local keyboard docks for their latest Galaxy Tab range, so they must have done some of the same work. Samsung did not decide to include that work on any of their phones, so if you own one of them, you again are out of luck. HTC have not included any local keyboard layouts in either their phones or the Flyer.

I do see, to some extent, the logic in leaving it to the OEM’s to include different keyboard layouts, that way they can make them fit only their own accessories and make more money. That does not explain why Google did not include sort of standard layout for the country's that's already supported by the standard touch keyboard. I’m not knowledgeable enough to know if this is hard to do, but I don’t see why it should be. This way Google would make sure that everybody that wanted an external keyboard would get at least a decent experience.

Android devices are very versatile devices, and can be put to use in a lot of different scenarios. This is what Android is all about. Leaving out the productivity scenario by not giving everybody who buys an Android device the possibility to connect their local keyboard seem just plain dumb. As the phone screen grows bigger and tablets finally get some traction, the need for an external keyboard will grow. Today if you want to use your latest Android Smartphone as your primary computing unit, and live outside the US, there is no option that I know of. There are some apps in the Market that does some of the work, and there is descriptions online on how to make your own keyboard map on a rooted phone or tablet, but it’s all way to much work for anybody normal. I just want to get myself a nice compact Bluetooth keyboard with my local characters, connect it and get to work.

I might be overlooking something and if anybody out there knows a solution to this problem, please do not hesitate to leave info in the comments. I’m interested in both free and commercial solutions.