Mobile Groove

Voice — speech recognition and natural language understanding — are poised to transform our daily lives and disrupt all industries — not just mobile. Thanks to companies like Nuance Communications — which is also the speech-recognition engine behind Siri, the virtual personal assistant on the Apple iPhone — we are rapidly moving toward a voice-enabled future. We catch up today with Vlad Sejnoha, Nuance Chief Technology Officer, to get an inside track on the topics he will address at M…

Is voice the new battlefield as companies (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nuance) jockey for position to control the voice interface and our personal search and assistance experiences? Roberto Pieraccini, industry veteran and author of new book The Voice in the Machine, looks and the evolution of voice in computing and communications and maps out the future of mobile voice and beyond.

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If you watch Kubrick’s 1968 classic movie “2001 A Space Odyssey” today, you will certainly notice that ma…

What do we really want from our branded, self-service mobile apps? The numbers tell a mixed story. Usage data shows we appreciate instant access to the companies we do business with via mobile apps aimed at taking the heavy lifting out of resolving customer service issues and questions. Meantime, a raft of reports suggests the appeal of instantly downloading the latest apps is losing its luster.

But rather than speculate about consumer attitudes toward customer service apps Nuance teamed up with Vocalabs to find out what consumers really think about their self-service apps. The findings are a wake up call for companies everywhere.

At m-pulse we wrap up a month dedicated to mobile voice technology and transformation with a look at Nuance, a company aggressively leveraging its long heritage in speech recognition to enable a range of new experiences and – ultimately – a new voice search experience (and ecosystem). Our guest is Kenn Harper, Nuance Mobile Director of Product Management.

In other segments we discuss some new numbers from Xyologic, a company tracking app downloads to provide us a more European perspective on the rise of Android and the increasing importance of local content and context. And this time my co-host Rob Woodbridge raises his goblet of rock to an innovation (and a mad genius) that redefines what we mean by ‘awesome.’ (Words alone don’t do it justice, so you’ll have to tune into m-pulse and check out the video teaser Rob has inserted into this week’s vodcast.)

Should we brace ourselves for a new battle as companies (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nuance) jockey for position to control the voice interface and our personal search/assistance experience? We continue our look at the opportunities and competition around mobile voice with Roberto Pieraccini, industry veteran and author of The Voice in the Machine.

In other segments we discuss the wider issue of personal privacy, following the news that social app Path has been uploading user data to its servers without our consent. Rob Woodbridge recounts a checklist of things to consider when building privacy into your minimum viable product. And we both find a perfect fit with a brilliant presentation— whose time has come (again) — from Jonathan MacDonald, a thought-leader and entrepreneur in digital media perhaps best known for his passionate views on the 3Ps (Permission: people will decide what brand messages they interact with; Privacy: people will decide where their data is collected and how it is used; and Preference: people will decide what content they find relevant). More about that further down in this post.

Mobile voice services have finally crossed the chasm thanks to the rise (and rise) Apple Siri — the smart, voice-enabled mobile assistant that connects with our personal data and the wider Internet to manage our daily lives. What is the real impact of Apple on the industry? Where are the opportunities for innovation? Who are the niche companies with good ideas and huge potential? And how will our requirement for a voice interface challenge mobile search and set new demands on customer service?

mobile voice, and we examine from a variety of perspectives, beginning with Bill Meisel, the industry go-to guy for all things voice.

By way of background, Bill is the founder of TMA Associates, an independent consultancy providing insights and supporting companies that want to incorporate speech technologies into their offer, or improve their own enterprise efficiency. Bill has also teamed up with the Applied Voice Input Output Society (AVIOS) to organize the Mobile Voice Conference, March 12-14 in San Francisco. With this must-attend just around the corner my co-host Rob Woodbridge and I dedicate this month to mobile voice and celebrate the ‘Year of the Ear’ — to borrow an observation from Mary Meeker’s invaluable trends presentation.