It may just be sour grapes, but Microsoft officials insist voice-recognition software is not ready for incorporation into mainstream office suites. New suites announced by Corel and Lotus will include voice-recognition capability.
"We believe in it, but it's not ready for prime time," said
Matthew Price, a Microsoft Office product manager, confirming the company will not incorporate voice recognition into its next-generation Office 2000, which is due within the next six months. "Voice recognition is in the experimental phase. With 90 percent accuracy rates, that's one out of every 10 words wrong. We're not going to do it."
At PC Expo this week, where Microsoft (company profile) offered a preview of Office 2000, both of its competitors announced upgraded suites that include voice-recognition software. Corel WordPerfect Suite 8, now shipping, incorporates Dragon Systems' NaturallySpeaking technology. Lotus' SmartSuite Millennium Edition, which will ship in July, incorporates IBM's ViaVoice technology.
Microsoft officials pointed out, however, it is investing
heavily in natural-language technology for its user interface, and has a significant stake in another voice-recognition software vendor, Lernout & Hauspie
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