Nuance Mobile Tops One Million Transactions

Breakthrough Customer Usage Volume Highlights Simplicity of Speech Access to Mobile Content; Usage Frequency Nearly Doubles in Just 9 Months

Nuance Communications, Inc., a leading supplier of speech and imaging solutions, today announced that Nuance VoiceControl, a mobile search and messaging service powered by speech technology, has completed more than one million speech-enabled mobile transactions. Users of the Nuance VoiceControl service can simply press a single button and speak to their phone, then instantly receive desired information or create highly accurate messages, without any need for typing on the small, constrained keypads of mobile devices. Over the past year, customers using the service placed "voice requests" on Sprint-compatible Palm Treo, Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices available from Sprint. The Nuance VoiceControl service was and is also available via download from Handango.

Usage analysis of the most recent mobile transactions with Nuance VoiceControl reveals that voice dialing and calendar access accounted for approximately 65 percent of the speech requests, while 17 percent of the requests involved mobile messaging, such as sending SMS messages or email. Nearly all of the remaining requests involved mobile search of yellow pages directories, news and other information. Perhaps most significantly, Nuance reports that usage frequency of the service nearly doubled over the last nine months, with an average of approximately 30 requests per unique subscriber in the month of December 2006, compared to 17 voice requests per user for the month of April 2006.

"Handsets have incorporated speech applications for quite some time, but the functionality was previously limited to personal information management (PIM) functionality such as voice dialing and device control, so much of the available mobile content remained deeply hidden behind confusing menus or awkward and complicated keypad entry," said Michael Thompson, vice president and general manager, telco, search and communications, Nuance. "Our research suggests that by delivering single-button access to Web content and messaging, Nuance is helping mobile users unlock the full potential of mobile device Web and data capabilities, thereby creating significant value opportunities for users and operators alike. Our goal is to make mobile search as pervasive as traditional 411 and desktop Web search" - Nuance.