OnStar To Work General Magic on Voice Service
By Brian McDonough, Wireless.NewsFactor.com
General Magic (Nasdaq: GMGC - news) has signed a deal with General Motors' OnStar Corp. to develop and maintain voice applications for the OnStar Virtual Advisor, which provides hands-free, voice-activated access to Web-based information in vehicles.
The annually renewable agreement is not the first deal between the two companies. They have worked together since late 1999, when General Magic was tapped to build the voice application behind the Virtual Advisor. OnStar owns a stake in General Magic, and OnStar's president sits on the developer's board of directors.
This new deal has General Magic promising a "dedicated pool of resources" to support continued development of the Virtual Advisor.
"It's a team of people here who will focus their efforts to build out new services to incorporate into the Virtual Advisor," General Magic vice president Paula Skokowski told Wireless NewsFactor.
Limited Rollout
OnStar sports 1.4 million subscribers gained since its debut in the fall of 1996, according to OnStar spokesperson Geri Lama. OnStar does not disclose how many of its users also subscribe to the Virtual Advisor service, which was launched late last year and is available in select areas, primarily the U.S. Northeast and parts of the Midwest.
"It's too early to tell -- the subscriber base is new," she told Wireless NewsFactor. "We haven't done any marketing for it yet. We're rolling out the service behind our personal calling service, which hasn't gone nationwide yet. We're waiting for the network to strengthen up a bit in certain places."
News via Voice
For those who can get it, the product offers voice access to e-mail, stock quotes, weather updates and up-to-the-minute news content, including sports, financial, headline, business and world news. It allows subscribers to access personalized Web-based information, in a hands-free, voice-activated manner -- there are no screens or displays.
That, Skokowski noted, makes Virtual Advisor a killer data application. "It addresses safety concerns, the need and desire for information while you're on the road -- it's a great application of voice recognition," she said.
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