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Samsung May Acquire Nuance, the Company That Powers Siri

Apple bought Novauris Technologies in 2013, a lot of people who have worked on Dragon NaturallySpeaking is now working there. My guess is that there is no need for buying such big company when you just want a small part of it for Siri.
A small focused smart buy. Just like the Beats buy. ;)
 
Windlasher said:
Why the hell does Samsung need this? Their devices run Android so don't they already have this with S Voice?

Are they doing it just to piss off Apple?

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Interesting.....:eek:
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Because Samsung is planning to introduce Tizen phones on a large scale. They are already scheduled to release as Tizen-powered hi-end phone in Russia this year. Sammy is going to screw Google, just like they've been trying to steal from Apple. They are putting a fully Samsung-owned ecosystem in place so they can jettison Google. They already completely reskin their Android devices so most users think they're using "a Galaxy" not an "Android." Watch...it's going to happen.
 
bedifferent said:
I was thinking the same. Why didn't Apple acquire Nuance as "Siri" is a key iOS (and rumored future OS X) feature?



How much baggage? I'm asking seriously as I don't know the exact specifics on the company aside from their commercial dictation software. Regardless, Apple has plenty of cash, why not do what Google did with "Nest" (and "beats"), buy it but allow the company to run independently yet "overseen" by Apple?
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Well, Nuance not only have a huge foothold in the education industry, but also in the government/healthcare industry. They're very deeply rooted in a lot of things and they've had a lot of legacy issues that caused outcry. For instance, when Lion (or was it ML?) came out, they didn't have a compatible version of Dragon Dictate. They said they'd update it for the latest version, so thousands of copies were bought in the thought that it would soon be patched for compatibility.

Nuance responded by bringing out a new version of Dragon, Dragon 3, that would be paid only. Didn't patch the old version. ****ed a load of people who sunk £150+ into software they didn't do jack with.

Stuff like that is the tip of the iceberg. Too many fingers in too many pies, and too many mistakes from too much greed. Buying them outright is too much trouble.
 
If Apple decides to go over Samsung's head and outbid Nuance, that $3 billion they spent on Beats may be nothing compared for this acquisition.
 
bpeeps said:
Why was I under the impression they purchased Siri. Or did they just buy the app?
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They did purchase the company behind Siri, but that company was using Nuance for the behind-the-scenes voice recognition and voice-to-text translation. End-user solutions such as Siri are far more complex than just the voice recognition tech.
 
keysofanxiety said:
Well, Nuance not only have a huge foothold in the education industry, but also in the government/healthcare industry. They're very deeply rooted in a lot of things and they've had a lot of legacy issues that caused outcry. For instance, when Lion (or was it ML?) came out, they didn't have a compatible version of Dragon Dictate. They said they'd update it for the latest version, so thousands of copies were bought in the thought that it would soon be patched for compatibility.

Nuance responded by bringing out a new version of Dragon, Dragon 3, that would be paid only. Didn't patch the old version. ****ed a load of people who sunk £150+ into software they didn't do jack with.

Stuff like that is the tip of the iceberg. Too many fingers in too many pies, and too many mistakes from too much greed. Buying them outright is too much trouble.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I had no idea. Thanks for the info. Do you believe Apple could "address" those issues if they bought the company? Then again, it does seem a bit of "biting off more than you can chew". I would hate to have "Siri" bought by a competitor, even though I'm certain Apple has a solid agreement/contract/etc regarding ownership and control.

Kariya said:
To all of you saying why didn't Apple buy Nuance, they tried. Nuance wanted more money...even though they were making negative profit. Tried to play hardball because they figured they could fleece Apple a little. That and Nuance is quite convoluted anyway.

Hence the rumour that Apple trying to move things in-house. They've acquired Nouvaris instead.
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This is why I frequent MacRumors daily, I'm always learning something. I'll have to check out Nouvaris.
 
Samsung is at it again. I'll withhold judgment because I'm not sure if Samsung approached them first or not...if so, very childish...S-Voice sucks anyway.
 
sounds like samsung are buying it out from under apple.

I think apple isn't worried though and is happy to see it go, hopeful they can just make it in-house. I mean come on they do some crazy stuff with software they must be able to whip up this in a snap.
 
bedifferent said:
Interesting, I had no idea. Thanks for the info. Do you believe Apple could "address" those issues if they bought the company? Then again, it does seem a bit of "biting off more than you can chew". I would hate to have "Siri" bought by a competitor, even though I'm certain Apple has a solid agreement/contract/etc regarding ownership and control.
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You're completely right, matey. For the sake of licensing their speech engine only, which makes everything work, it's much easier. Apple aren't stupid, and buying Nuance for their speech engine is like buying Spain for its beaches. Sure, they're nice, but you'll have a lot of other crap to deal with ;)
 
StrongArmmed said:
Because Samsung is planning to introduce Tizen phones on a large scale. They are already scheduled to release as Tizen-powered hi-end phone in Russia this year. Sammy is going to screw Google, just like they've been trying to steal from Apple. They are putting a fully Samsung-owned ecosystem in place so they can jettison Google. They already completely reskin their Android devices so most users think they're using "a Galaxy" not an "Android." Watch...it's going to happen.
Click to expand...

All we need... Another obscure phone OS.
 
Instead of being Happy for Apple to be a small company that made it. it's everyone versus Apple because they made it! OMG! haters everywhere! So, what's the message here? follow your dreams and DIE!!!! ???
 
BC2009 said:
Steve was not a magician that could wave a wand and always get his way. The real problem is people who keep thinking he was and put him on a pedestal.
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Steve Jobs was a magician. But even magicians aren't omnipotent. Actually, call Steve Jobs whatever you want—Apple would most certainly be a better company if he were still in charge.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
If Samsung buys Nuance, Apple would probably just license the Bing voice recognition engine. It works remarkably well, and Microsoft isn't afraid to license their tech to competitors.
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Yeah but they should've owned Nuance. I'm surprised to see this, I was under the impression they DID own the company. They have the money and they're making the technology a huge piece of their mobile platform. Would be silly to let this slip to Samsung.
 
keysofanxiety said:
Well, Nuance not only have a huge foothold in the education industry, but also in the government/healthcare industry. They're very deeply rooted in a lot of things and they've had a lot of legacy issues that caused outcry. For instance, when Lion (or was it ML?) came out, they didn't have a compatible version of Dragon Dictate. They said they'd update it for the latest version, so thousands of copies were bought in the thought that it would soon be patched for compatibility.

Nuance responded by bringing out a new version of Dragon, Dragon 3, that would be paid only. Didn't patch the old version. ****ed a load of people who sunk £150+ into software they didn't do jack with.

Stuff like that is the tip of the iceberg. Too many fingers in too many pies, and too many mistakes from too much greed. Buying them outright is too much trouble.
Click to expand...

And?
So what. Apple makes products to sell, they are not a charity.
If those business units (education/government/healthcare/disabled) are not profit centers, the product should be discontinues.
 
Nuance owns a lot of companies that do things outside of the smartphone and voice recognition market. They own Copitrak and Equitrac, two major companies dealing with cost recovery in the printed page market, as well as eCopy which is huge in OCR technology as well as being an onramp into document management technologies. Samsung has been growing their market share in these fields over the last few years, and this would be a logical choice and a major blow to their competitors in fields not related to phones.
 
StrongArmmed said:
Because Samsung is planning to introduce Tizen phones on a large scale. They are already scheduled to release as Tizen-powered hi-end phone in Russia this year. Sammy is going to screw Google, just like they've been trying to steal from Apple. They are putting a fully Samsung-owned ecosystem in place so they can jettison Google. They already completely reskin their Android devices so most users think they're using "a Galaxy" not an "Android." Watch...it's going to happen.
Click to expand...

And it comes full circle. Samsung made their own smartphone. Now their own OS and soon their own App Store. All I can see is this might PO galaxy owners and segregate the OS market share.
 
ThisIsNotMe said:
And?
So what. Apple makes products to sell, they are not a charity.
If those business units (education/government/healthcare/disabled) are not profit centers, the product should be discontinues.
Click to expand...

You ... you really don't understand just how important Nuance are. There will be a biblical outcry. It's not just a case of 'discontinue it, **** happens'.
 
this would be hilarious. it would force apple to do it in house would which actually be better for the company eventually. But it's just funny.
 
dwd3885 said:
this would be hilarious. it would force apple to do it in house would which actually be better for the company eventually. But it's just funny.
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Apple doing it "in house".....can anyone say "maps"? That was really successful /Sarcasm
 
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