Excerpt:
Nuance, based in Burlington, Mass., has been in the mobile market for voice-enabled services for a while, along with IBM, WireVision and others, Dan Miller, analyst for Opus Research, said. Nuance’s plans to acquire MobileVoiceControl, however, reflects the expectation of a growing market for speech-enabled mobile search and messaging services. Opus expects the market to grow rapidly from an “infinitesimal” revenue stream today to $300 million in a couple of years and a multi-billion-dollar market by 2010.

“This is the beginning of some serious recognition that speech-enabling transactions open the door for some ear-popping revenue streams,” Miller said.

The big money would arrive when service providers link speech-enabled search to advertising, similar to the business model used by search engines like Google in the PC world. Someone searching for a product, for example, could get sponsored ads from local retailers.

The potential has not been lost on carriers, which are warming up to speech-enabled services after an initial experience that failed to generate much revenue, Miller said. Beginning technology performed poorly, and failed to attract wireless subscribers.

Today’s speech-recognition technology, however, is much better and is being used by Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless to sell products, such as ring tones and games, and to access other data services, Miller said. Other carriers are expected to follow.

“There’s a revenue spike when people start using these services,” Miller said. “Carriers are finding ways to bump up revenues from subscribers, without raising data rate plans. The light bulb is coming on.”

From the article, “Nuance To Buy Provider Of Speech-Enabled Mobile Services”, InformationWeek, December 8, 2006

Categories: Opus in the News