Apple partner Nuance exploring sale, reportedly in talks with Samsung
Nuance Communications, the voice recognition company whose technology helps to power Apple's Siri personal assistant, is said to be exploring a sale of the company, with Apple rival Samsung allegedly a potential suitor.
Nuance's apparent interest in a sale was first revealed on Monday by The Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed sources. Nuance is based in Burlington, Mass., and licenses its voice recognition technology to a number of major companies, chief among them Samsung and Apple.
Though the partnership between Nuance and Apple was long assumed, the company officially confirmed last year that its technology helps to power Siri, which is found on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Nuance CEO Paul Ricci revealed that his company's technology is "the fundamental provider of voice recognition for Apple."
Some industry watchers and investors have suggested that Apple should make a play to buy Nuance and own the technology behind Siri while cutting out competitors like Samsung or the Google Now service found in Android. Last year, investors speculated that Apple could acquire Nuance for $7 billion -- a price well beyond anything Apple has ever spent on an acquisition.
Of course, Apple recently did join the billion-dollar-acquisition club with its blockbuster $3 billion buyout of Beats, which was confirmed last month.
Nuance's technology does not handle Siri's artificial intelligence layers. Instead, the company's products simply provides the capability of Siri, or other voice-driven services, to interpret a user's voice. That data must then be contextually deciphered to provide the kind of humanized response a user expects.
Nuance's apparent interest in a sale was first revealed on Monday by The Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed sources. Nuance is based in Burlington, Mass., and licenses its voice recognition technology to a number of major companies, chief among them Samsung and Apple.
Though the partnership between Nuance and Apple was long assumed, the company officially confirmed last year that its technology helps to power Siri, which is found on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Nuance CEO Paul Ricci revealed that his company's technology is "the fundamental provider of voice recognition for Apple."
Some industry watchers and investors have suggested that Apple should make a play to buy Nuance and own the technology behind Siri while cutting out competitors like Samsung or the Google Now service found in Android. Last year, investors speculated that Apple could acquire Nuance for $7 billion -- a price well beyond anything Apple has ever spent on an acquisition.
Of course, Apple recently did join the billion-dollar-acquisition club with its blockbuster $3 billion buyout of Beats, which was confirmed last month.
Nuance's technology does not handle Siri's artificial intelligence layers. Instead, the company's products simply provides the capability of Siri, or other voice-driven services, to interpret a user's voice. That data must then be contextually deciphered to provide the kind of humanized response a user expects.
Comments
Google doesn't use Nuance for any of their products including Google Now as far as I know. As for the rest of the story it reads to me as Nuance possibly floating the idea of a sale just to see how much they might be worth with no actual plan to follow thru at the moment.
In an unrelated story, the [URL=http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/16/5814712/government-wants-to-regulate-smartphone-navigation-apps]US Transportation Department wants to regulate navigation apps[/URL]... They are probably losing so much of their traffic ticket money that they want to remove the ability for users to indicate where the police are located.
This is just so they can weedle more money out of Apple when the latter inevitably purchases them.
Even though Siri apparently uses Nuance only for voice recognition and not for AI, it seems to me that this would have been a more important strategic and defensive acquisition than Beats was.
To some one out of the loop you are right, however I gave up thinking I was smarter than Apple a long time ago.
Its lack of contextual awareness, for a company that wants to be worth 7 billion , is inexcusable and downright lazy. Statistics-based frequency models for determining which words should appear together are clunky and not fit for purpose in modern computing. Even a little bit of artificial intelligence and better use of grammar would go a long way in making the product better.
The stupid word combinations it sometimes comes up with boggle the mind even with someone that speaks clearly and knows how to use the product.
Apple's dictation in Mavericks cannot be used all day, every day for serious work. But DragonDictate earns enough money that some serious investment would make a product that..... .....makes sense out of the nonsense traces it throws in front of you.
I really wish someone else could emerge to provide enough competition to make them progress in a meaningful way. Apple Dictation just knocked the bottom out of the market and I worry that they will take that as an incentive to invest even less, especially on the Mac platform.
At the end of the day, the product is just too dumb for what we [reasonably] expect of it.
Nuance Communications, is said to be exploring a sale of the company, with Apple rival Samsung allegedly a potential suitor.
Whoa! Thanks for that important piece of reporting.
Please also do a followup on whether anyone is saying that extraterrestrials might, potentially be involved in some way.
Didn't you know questioning the Beats acquisition is heresy around here?
I don't necessarily think the Beats acquisition was as terrible as others feel, but when you compare the two, which is more important? Seems to me that voice recognition is harder to build than streaming radio, which Apple already actually has, even if it hasn't gained all that much market acceptance. And while Beats does sell a lot of headphones (for better or worse), Apple certainly has the capability to produce their own high end headphones or work with a different partner on OEM phones with an Apple logo. How about headphones that would have a high-end refined sound that would work wirelessly with either any computer, iPhone, iPad or Apple TV and also include noise-reduction and a microphone that hides itself within the design when you don't need it packaged within the usual Apple elegant design statement?
But they can't do without voice recognition and if Samsung does buy Nuance, Apple could lose its rights to the technology at contract renewal time. In fact, if Samsung does buy it, I have to think that their primary objective would be to make life harder for Apple.
I am a long time user of Nuance. More than 12 year. I still use it everyday and am even using it to dictate this. Even with a pretty good microphone (Airport 77), a Retina MBP and a quiet environment, it SUCKS!
Its lack of contextual awareness, for a company that wants to be worth 7 billion , is inexcusable and downright lazy. Statistics-based frequency models for determining which words should appear together are clunky and not fit for purpose in modern computing. Even a little bit of artificial intelligence and better use of grammar would go a long way in making the product better.
The stupid word combinations it sometimes comes up with boggle the mind even with someone that speaks clearly and knows how to use the product.
Apple's dictation in Mavericks cannot be used all day, every day for serious work. But DragonDictate earns enough money that some serious investment would make a product that..... .....makes sense out of the nonsense traces it throws in front of you.
I really wish someone else could emerge to provide enough competition to make them progress in a meaningful way. Apple Dictation just knocked the bottom out of the market and I worry that they will take that as an incentive to invest even less, especially on the Mac platform.
At the end of the day, the product is just too dumb for what we [reasonably] expect of it.
Thanks for your experience, Shaw.
Article: [Nuance's technology does not handle Siri's artificial intelligence layers. Instead, the company's products simply provides the capability of Siri, or other voice-driven services, to interpret a user's voice.]
Surely there is other technology Apple could purchase that would cost far less than this. However, to seem interested to drive the price up to waste Samsung’s time and money would be a ploy most corporations might entertain. Creepy, but Samsung thrives on creepy.
addendum
As Apple seems not to have broached the company prior to this, possibly it is working on its own version of this technology. Just supposing . .
Didn't you know questioning the Beats acquisition is heresy around here?
Seems to me the opposite is true,
Troll whining. Typical, but still disgraceful.
Good find. Thanks, Aldous.
Apple apparently has a research lab in Boston made up of former VoiceSignal staff that have been working for a few years on a secret project. Maybe Nuance knows that Apple is about to cut its cord with them and are looking for some company to buy them out before that happens?
Google's voice recognition technology and contextual natural language comprehension is so far ahead of everyone else it is ridiculous. I have no idea how they did it without infringing on Nuance patents. That is the main challenge with Apple rolling their own voice recognition, the patents.
This is just so they can weedle wheedle more money out of Apple when the latter inevitably purchases them.
Your typos are just so rare, I can't help myself here...
Apple apparently has a research lab in Boston made up of former VoiceSignal staff that have been working for a few years on a secret project. Maybe Nuance knows that Apple is about to cut its cord with them and are looking for some company to buy them out before that happens?
Link? Reference?
Link? Reference?
http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2013/07/26/apples-boston-area-team-working-on-speech-in-nuances-backyard/
http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2013/07/26/apples-boston-area-team-working-on-speech-in-nuances-backyard/
Thanks.