Response to Droid Car Kit: Mio Technologies Powers Talking Nav with Nuance Vocalizer

Verizon’s introduction of a “car kit” that transforms Motorola Droid into a voice-activated personal navigation device (PND) has served as a wake-up call to competing navigation device makers. The platform is tightly bound to Google-branded solutions, especially voice search and Google Maps. The result is an instantiation of voice-based input of destination and text-to-speech-based output of turn-by-turn directions, as well as visual display of map information using a “general-purpose” smartphone instead of a dedicated PND.

One of the first competitive responses comes today from Mio Technology, which is expanding its use of Nuance Vocalizer for Automotive to provide spoken, turn-by-turn directions on a broader a variety of PNDs. Mio, which was founded in May 2002, now offers its products in over 58 countries and has offices and operations in Taiwan, mainland China, Europe, North America, Australia, Japan and South Korea. It has a global presence, but has recently been playing up its role as market share leader in Central and Eastern Europe. Its current product portfolio employs Nuance Vocalizer to support 20 languages, including all major North American and European languages.