Watching the Startups: Voicemail to Text
Emerging voicemail-to-text technologies offer flexibility and conveinence for busy professionals, but is the market headed toward mass consumption? Will mobile and Internet carriers be a barrier or a benevolent player in this technology’s ascension? When the blinking red light on the cell phone or the interrupted dial tone on the fixed line indicates new voicemail, most users would rather deal with it later. Dialing in and wading through messages--searching for the important nuggets--can be a chore, particularly for road warriors. But the longer you wait, the more dreadful the experience becomes. Messages pile up. Any one of then might hold the key to an important contact or a pending deal. “Anybody who gets more than five or six voicemails a day understands that voicemail is ridiculous,” says Jason Weissman, principal and founder of Boston Advisors Realty, “I couldn't stand listening for three minutes or more per mail. It is really inefficient for me to check voicemail. I travel a lot and I can’t just sit and be writing down messages all day.” As indispensable as it is, voicemail is becoming a technological relic in an increasingly text- and search-friendly business environment. If a new rash of start-ups has their way with the wizened technology, however, voicemail will join the textual revolution. These companies are pushing out new voicemail-to-text products that automatically transcribe voicemail and transfer it to the user’s e-mail or SMS repository. “Voicemail today is a bit of an antique, it hasn't changed in 15 years,” said Dr. Anthony Bladon, chief scientist at the voicemail-to-text vendor CallWave. “You have to call into a number and listen through maybe five messages when all you want to hear is number five.” ... more >>>