Eric B. —
May 14, 2009 @ 12:42 pm 
It seems like all the news is coming up TellMe lately. If you’ll remember, last week we reported on some conflicting analysis on the significance of Microsoft/TellMe’s release of new in-the-cloud solutions. At contention between analysts Daniel Hong (of the Datamonitor variety) and Elizabeth Herrell (Forrester-flavored) was whether Microsoft was poised to really pose a threat to Nuance.
Whether or not that’s true, Nuance seems to be feeling some pressure from the TellMe/Microsoft tag team.
I was cleaning out my email and I noticed the following email blast from Nuance’s PR folks that came in a couple weeks ago:
“Today’s announcement is simply Microsoft looking to get back on the mobile industry map. Their product is not only limited to Windows Mobile handsets, but just to those running the new 6.5 version of the OS. Nuance Communications has long been offering these capabilities to all major OEMs and carriers with VSuite and NVC 2.0 for virtually any platform—smartphones and feature phones. That’s why owners of more than 300 million phones worldwide—-from major OEMs such as Motorola, RIM and Samsung—-already enjoy one-button access to voice-enabled features with Nuance’s VSuite.”
“Today’s announcement” refers to an April 29th story that saw Windows Mobile 6.5 getting speech recognition courtesy of TellMe. I know this by no means new news, but I thought it might be good to illustrate the context in which last week’s piece was couched.
It’s not that often that you get a release from a PR agent about another firm. This rare tactical move on Nuance’s part suggests some genuine concern. Most of the time a company will just let another’s announcements lie. Perhaps there is a fear that if speech goes native in the Windows Mobile OS, they will have a harder time convincing OEMs and carriers to pay to embed Nuance speech in their devices.
As we’ve reported before, Nuance’s entire business model in the mobile space is carrier/OEM facing. They move their wares through deals with companies like Motorola and Samsung rather than making any direct-to-consumer bids. If Windows viably threatens that model, it may put Nuance in a very precarious position on the mobile front.
When I asked my brother Adam B. what he made of all this Nuance on Microsoft/TellMe huff n’ puff, he only growled throatily, “It’s clobberin’ time!“
