Consumers and Businesses to Embrace Voice Portals.

Business/High Tech Editors

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 10, 2000

Wireless data remains difficult to view in a mobile environment.

Limited by tiny display screens on mobile phones, consumers and businesses will embrace voice portals, boosting the market to $1.6 billion annually by 2005, according to Cahners In-Stat Group (http://www.instat.com).

Voice portals aim at providing an obvious solution to the problem: delivering data via audio. Using speech recognition and text-to-speech technology, voice portals (like talking Internet portals with voice-activated navigation) are capable of delivering services such as: news, weather, stock quotes, sports scores, e-mail, voice mail, document management, access to personal schedules, and travel arrangement capability. "Until recently, voice portals were a pipe dream. But cheaper, more powerful computing horsepower, wide proliferation of wireless devices, and vastly improved speech recognition/text-to-speech software now make voice portals viable," says Ken Hyers, Industry Analyst for In-Stat's Wireless Service. Voice portal providers have varying business models, according to Hyers, "Most are banking on advertising as their main revenue source. Many consumers are attracted to the voice portal concept but may be turned off by advertising." According to an In-Stat survey of 1,000 consumers, nearly half of those surveyed would be very likely to use voice portals but less than a third were willing to use them if they were forced to listen to ads.

In-Stat finds that Internet portals and wireless carriers are interested in these burgeoning services and may be able to infuse voice portals with needed capital via partnerships or acquisitions. Some telcos and Internet portals may choose to create their own voice portals and compete head on with the upstarts, however.

The report, Talking to the Net -- Voice Portals Come of Age (WP0006SP) reviews the major players that are making an early mark in the voice portal space. It also explores the market potential created by voice portals and offers a comprehensive breakdown of where the opportunities and pitfalls will be. The report contains a detailed explanation of the revenue opportunities that will be created by voice portals. To purchase this report or for more information, please visit http://www.instat.com/catalog/cat-wp.htm#wp0006sp or contact Courtney McEuen at 480/609-4533; mailto:[e-mail]. The report price is $2,995 USD.

Cahners In-Stat Group (http://www.instat.com/) covers the full spectrum of digital communications research from vendor to end-user, providing the analysis and perspective that allows technology vendors and service providers worldwide to make more informed business decisions.