Apple's Siri and the Star Trek Syndrome

by Bob Bova

There is so much hype, spin, and dare I say manufactured excitement  about SIRI voice, and before that with  Google Voice. And again, after a closer examination, Siri is nowhere near ready for prime time.   Voice will continue to be heavily covered in the consumer space because analysts and bloggers have what our late, great Director of Engineering, David Seifert, used to call Star Trek syndrome. You should speak and the door should open.  Cool, yes, but really…what’s voice good for, if you’re not providing a  legitimate alternative for getting real work done…faster.

Voice:  The Cool Factor Vs. Real Work

Most mobile enterprise IT professionals know that the performance bar is much higher for enterprise mobile solutions supporting mobile workforces.  They know that the ‘cool factor’  has it’s fascination for speech enabled devices that surf the web, find the closest Starbucks, dial their phone and attempt to dictate an email message.  Whether it’s Siri or Google Voice, both still have a long way to go.   Better  noise cancellation capabilities, for one, without it, forget the ‘voice  anywhere’ option. Then there’s the network and server dependency. Siri and Google Voice are storing and processing millions of usage and voice patterns, of course doing some “thinking” via artificial intelligence.  The Cloud Server Farms must be the size of Australia.  That’s why there’s latency, and it will impact the user experience.  As long as the voice processing occurs OUT THERE, you’re going to wait. And for the enterprise professional none of this matters unless you can easily integrate this technology with their existing COTS or custom-built mobile workforce apps. Which you can’t.

It’s OK for consumers playing with their SIRI on their IPhones, but completely unusable for the mobile voice market serving industry-grade and corporate applications designed for ‘ WORK’.

That’s right, WORK.  The new four letter word for the consumer market. While analysts and bloggers  trumpet the latest and greatest way to open your garage door by using your voice on your IPhone,  today’s U.S and International companies strive to provide the next level of mobile workforce productivity,  worker safety, and training. They examine voice and other technologies that will stretch their workforce’s performance. They are employing voice to speed  warehouse management, mobile inspections, field mobility, mobile maintenance and repair, dispatch, delivery and dozens of other industry grade applications. These voice-powered applications work on very sophisticated handheld devices including bar code scanners, RFiD readers, Smartphones, custom hardware and tablets….with 99% accuracy…… its user independent…..and it’s been available for years.   Voice technology has already reached beyond the warehouse and call center,  to mobile enterprise applications and devices supporting mobile workforces with 24/7, anywhere, anytime voice productivity.  It has been, and continues to deliver an unbelievable ROI for those companies. 

We voice enable our  customer’s mobile applications and devices to stimulate real work productivity, with  a reliable interactive voice option to keyboard and touch screen.  Its  already performing today, in prime time, to get real work done, faster.