TECHNOLOGY SPECTATOR: Siri's captive audience

The success of Apple's personal voice assistant Siri has revitalised the speech recognition technology space and with consumers enamoured by what Siri has to say, the revitalisation of the once moribund sector could bring significant benefits at an enterprise level.

For those in the business of developing speech technology, Siri's success couldn't have come at a better time. Increased processing power, coupled with the roll-out of 3G and soon to come 4G mobile networks, has provided optimum conditions for the technology to take flight.

According to Jason Stirling, senior vice president for the Asia Pacific business of Nuance Communications, companies like his are now capable of doing things that just weren't possible 18 months ago.

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