Notice that Nuance provides the IVR. I don't know if they have a product ready, but it sounds like competition.
Regards,
Mark
Wireless Service Offers Portal Access
By Kathleen Cholewka
July 5, 1999 10:18 AM ET
zdnet.com
A Redwood Shores, Calif., start-up called @Motion today will release its @Motion service, a product that could make every wireless phone a portal access device.
@Motion will sell its carrier-grade server to wireless service providers and will partner with content providers to give wireless subscribers a variety of personalized services such as unified messaging, Yellow Pages listing services, commute updates, travel reservations and stock quote services to wireless providers. According to Dave Weinstein, vice president of marketing at @Motion, the service will differentiate itself from competing wireless content services by paying special attention to localized content and time critical applications.
The company already has partnerships with the Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post to distribute news, TheStreet.com for stock information and The Los Angeles Times for horoscopes.
The @Motion service works with any wireless handset including all wireless phones and works on any wireless network, because it bases its product on Internet Protocol standards.
"The company's focus is the whole wireless gateway concept," said David Berndt, associate director at The Yankee Group. "They [@Motion] come in between content and Internet information, Internet portals and carriers. Internet companies, like content providers, are interested in systems like these because they can get access to carrier customers. It's a great idea."
Since wireless networks are able to locate users wherever they are, the services will be able to be tailored locally to subscribers and will be able to reflect the locale of the user. For example, Weinstein said: "Bricks-and-mortar businesses that never advertised on the Web before will be able to advertise in their specific locales. You could be walking outside of Macy's in New York and get proactively sent a special coupon for a sale going on for the next two hours," he said. "Service providers will be able to mine their subscribers for additional revenue."
Customizing services to each user is complicated, but, Weinstein said, the local advertising will enable a higher degree of specialization. "That's the beauty of the Internet," he said.
The service has a highly sensitive voice recognition software from Nuance that enables users to quickly gain access to content on the Internet.
The company also announced today a second round of funding of $10 million from Intel, Deutsche Telekom and other venture capitalists.
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