Samsung May Acquire Nuance, the Company That Powers Siri

[famoussasjohn]

People keep saying this, but Apple licenses the Maps data from outside. So, that's a pretty bad analogy, failing utterly to be similar to your premise.

They got a bad deal on that license then considering the state of what maps was when it first launched.

 

[Glideslope]

Ugh !!!!!

 

[Taz Mangus]

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.

http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2013/...a-team-working-on-speech-in-nuances-backyard/

 

[bpeeps]

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.

Thanks for the clarification, that makes sense.

 

[iolinux333]

Delete

 

[kdarling]

One thing for sure:

If they do buy Nuance, Samsung is more likely to continue to license to others, than if Apple was the buyer.

Apple has a history of putting a lockdown on a company or product that had been shared for years by many companies.

E.g. Buying AuthenTec, whose fingerprint sensors had been used since the turn of the century by everyone. And buying an exclusive for LiquidMetal, which Samsung and others had used since 2002.

 

[iolinux333]

Annunciate relatively well and you'll be understood by Siri even in a relatively noisy room.

Even. When. I. Say. Every. Word. Perfectly. Siri. Sucks. So. Bad. It. Hurts.


I can drink a fifth of whisky and be chomping on a burrito with 110db random background noise and Google Now gets every word.

WTF Apple, just buy voice recognition services from Google until you can get your in house stuff in order. Siri makes iOS look like a joke. A sad joke.

 

[Rot'nApple]

I hope Siri doesn't mysteriously come down with laryngitis!
/
/
/

 

[ghost of jobs]

But... but... the fandroids all say Siri sucks. What will they say now?

That it still sucks...

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

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'.

What by .001% of the population? LOL.
Its a sad day when the vocal minority can rule the day in technology/science - has already ruined society/politics.

 

[keysofanxiety]

What by .001% of the population? LOL.
Its a sad day when the vocal minority can rule the day in technology/science - has already ruined society/politics.

Vocal minority being: hospitals, disabled people, government, military. LOL.

How about you read up on your facts?

 

[mccldwll]

Even. When. I. Say. Every. Word. Perfectly. Siri. Sucks. So. Bad. It. Hurts.


I can drink a fifth of whisky and be chomping on a burrito with 110db random background noise and Google Now gets every word.

WTF Apple, just buy voice recognition services from Google until you can get your in house stuff in order. Siri makes iOS look like a joke. A sad joke.

You just think Google got every word that you think you remember you said.

 

[jamezr]

People keep saying this, but Apple licenses the Maps data from outside. So, that's a pretty bad analogy, failing utterly to be similar to your premise.

But then they would also bring in outside data to use any new voice technology as well. They would not design it from the ground up....they will but an existing company and leverage their technology. So my example is accurate. It is even what they are doing with Siri now.....

 

[Internaut]

childish or just business?

Just business. Tbe ploy is obvious enough. The whole point of running a business, these days, is it be snapped up by another business. What Nuance is doing is at least more honourable than slow death and descent into patent troll (a la SCO).

 

[Teste]

If Siri died, all I would say is good riddance. Can't believe it's still in beta, nor that we still need internet access to set a reminder.

 

[koban4max]

Hey! At least they didn't just steal it.

that is very true....

 

[mtneer]

To all who are asking why hasn't Apple bought them already...maybe they don't want to be "acquired". A company has to *want* to be bought ya know?

Apple tried to buy Dropbox several times but they wouldn't budge sources have reported. Now look what Apple is planning...a dropbox of their own! HA!

Either you're with us, or you're against us. LOL

Apple could have used the billions at its disposal to nudge the unwilling partner. Not every NO needs to stay a no.. Apple could have used its position with the unwilling partners customers to drop them - Apple could have paid x more for 2 yrs if a company stopped doing business with the unwilling partner, or cut them off from Apple platforms. Once that happens and whatever sales the unwilling partner had vanishes, Apple could swoop in and buy them out for 10¢....

Or is that illegal?

 

[samcraig]

One thing for sure:

If they do buy Nuance, Samsung is more likely to continue to license to others, than if Apple was the buyer.

Apple has a history of putting a lockdown on a company or product that had been shared for years by many companies.

E.g. Buying AuthenTec, whose fingerprint sensors had been used since the turn of the century by everyone. And buying an exclusive for LiquidMetal, which Samsung and others had used since 2002.

Indeed. Some cheer this idea. However if Samsung were to engage in the same behavior - they would clearly be evil.

 

[KanosWRX]

Stupid Samsung, don't they realize Google Already offers a service for this, called Google Now... why fragment even more with your horrible OS Skins and apps that make this worse.. I would seriously consider Android if Google was the sole developer and they put some more effort into making it better.

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

Even. When. I. Say. Every. Word. Perfectly. Siri. Sucks. So. Bad. It. Hurts.

i find this exceptionally hard to believe unless English is not your first language. i'd love to see video of this issue.

 

[ksuyen]

Apple doing it "in house".....can anyone say "maps"? That was really successful /Sarcasm

I disagree. Apple map was new and being compared to established 10 years old Google map when it's out would generate a pretty deep contrast. On the other hand, Siri has been a while and an average person will not give a 2 cents on the speech tech behind it. Also I pretty sure Apple has learnt their lesson from the map. It will be all low key if they did this.

 

[coolspot18]

I can't understand why Apple hasn't bought them already... Like Steve always said, "Own the technology."

While speech recognition forms the backbone of Nuance... its business is really in health care, enterprise, document and imaging, and automative/embedded. Nuance is a lot larger and deeper than most people realize - they are not just a speech recognition company.

They have not really benefited from the advances in mobile processing. For example, their voice recognition for Siri does not use the iPhone's processor--it uploads the speech and utilizes offline processing. No internet connection and Siri becomes deaf and mute (aside from the few "I'm sorry..." phrases). Personally I think Apple would be better off without Nuance for Siri.

Google, on the other hand, has had huge advances in speech recognition. It recognizes on-the-fly, and will fallback to full on-device recognition if there is no net connection. It also seems better at understanding speech--especially when you see it correct itself as you speak (as it better understands the context of what you are saying).

Nuance does have hybrid ASR/TTS engines, but I guess Apple decided not to deploy it. Saying that, cloud based ASR/TTS is far superior to any onboard system ... a large grammar set can gobble up a huge chunk of RAM, and the processing required is still hefty.

Most things I see people complaining about "Nuance" is not the technology itself... but the implementation. Now who is to blame for the implementation - Apple, Nuance? Who knows...

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?

Huge baggage ... Speech recognition forms the core of Nuance, but its business is in Health Care, Enterprise (i.e. Apple), Document and Imaging, and Automative/Consumer Electronics. If Apple were to buy Nuance, what would they do with 85% of the company? No one would buy these piecemeal unless it came with access to the speech recognition technology.

Samsung or IBM would make logical suitors for Nuance ... both companies have a large and deep enough portfolio for each and every part of the company to fit in. Apple or even Google would be an awkward fit.

No computer has ever recognized my voice well. In a quiet room. Congrats on being understood by Siri. Not everyone is.

Normal sentence structure and proper grammar may help?

 

[jamezr]

I disagree. Apple map was new and being compared to established 10 years old Google map when it's out would generate a pretty deep contrast. On the other hand, Siri has been a while and an average person will not give a 2 cents on the speech tech behind it. Also I pretty sure Apple has learnt their lesson from the map. It will be all low key if they did this.

Apple released beta software in Maps and called ready. It was not......whats makes you think they will get it right this time? As far as Siri goes......some would argue Cortana is better....and it has only been around for a few months. Cortana is up against Siri that has had a few years to mature and evolve.....

 

[nuckinfutz]

This article is absolutely incorrect.

Nuance technology is a front-end to Siri not a backbone. A backbone implies a deeper connection to a given structure. That's not how Siri is designed.

Initially it used Vlingo technology as a front end before switching to Nuance. Apple will likely bring the front-end voice tech in-house with the Novauris acquisition.

Nuance Exec on Siri

Originally, the initial Siri used Vlingo’s voice technology (not the Siri app that was on the App Store, mind you). Since its speech recognition component is modular, Apple could easily replace Nuance in Siri without too much trouble if a better speech recognition comes along.

 

[vice-versa]

So Apple didn't come up with Siri. LOL, not surprised .