Amazon Buys Siri Rival to Destroy Apple
BY JANET MARAGIOGLIO | WED NOV 09, 2011 4:26 PM
mobiledia.com
Amazon is purchasing speech-to-text startup Yap, hinting at plans to incorporate voice recognition in its Kindle e-readers and tablets and boost their competitive power against the iPad.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Amazon completed the acquisition in September, but neither company announced the sale. The SEC filing does not mention Amazon by name, but says Yap merged with "Dion Acquisition Sub," which is housed in an Amazon.com building in Seattle, Wash.
Amazon's purchase of Yap may be a step toward adding voice-recognition technology to its Kindle products, including its e-readers and the upcoming Kindle Fire tablet. Inclusion of sophisticated voice-activated controls may give Amazon an edge against competitors like Barnes and Noble's Nook and Apple's iPad.
Competition in the tablet market is fierce, with Barnes & Noble unveiling its $250 Nook Tablet this week. It has twice the storage and speed of Amazon's $200 Kindle Fire, which is expected to sell five million units this quarter as holiday purchases skyrocket.
These lower-priced offerings both chase after the leading iPad, which accounts for over 80 percent of the tablet market, a position no Android-powered offering has yet been able to touch.
Yap's technology may give Amazon the ability to add voice controls to its tablets capable of understanding far more than the rudimentary commands currently supported by Android software, potentially allowing the company to erode Apple's dominance.
Five-year-old startup Yap has beta tested a voicemail-to-text service, but the intellectual property Amazon is expected to gain from the sale reportedly extends far beyond that simple application.
"Yap is truly a leader in freeform speech recognition and driving innovation in the mobile user experience," said Paul Grim, general partner at SunBridge Partners, which funded Yap back in 2008.
He further described Yap's voice recognition technology as "intuitive," calling to mind the voice-activated assistant Siri, included in Apple's iPhone 4S.
Apple hasn't said whether or not it will include Siri in future iPad releases, but Amazon's Yap acquisition may give its tablets a head start if and when that possibility occurs.
If Amazon puts Yap's technology to good use and releases tablets with intuitive voice recognition in the near future, it may give Android-powered tablets a stronger handhold in the market. |
