[MV] Re: ViaVoice vs. iListen

[T. Patrick Henebry]

At 23:25 +1000 6/18/03, Erika wrote:
>I don't think ViaVoice has had an upgrade in over a year, although someone
>please correct me if I am wrong

ViaVoice for Mac OS X was released in November of 2001. Aside from 
releasing Simply Dictation which is ViaVoce for Mac OS X without some 
features and no bundled microphone, and the Jaguar patch IBM has done 
nothing with the product. If a bug was present at release it's still 
there a year and a half later.

Personally, I doubt IBM will ever do anymore with the product unless 
future OS releases seriously break it. The small sales of ViaVoice 
for the Mac simply do not give them enough economic incentive.

>I have it in writing from an Australian IBM ViaVoice support
>technician that IBM have sold the rights to publish, sell, and
>support the Via Voice family of products to Scansoft, the company
>which makes Dragon Naturally Speaking.
>
>I can see no mention of this on the  ScanSoft website, or the IBM
>website, although the technician assures me that IBM announced it
>publicly on their website in April.

Here's URL for the full press release on ScanSoft's site:

<http://www.scansoft.com/news/pressreleases/2003/20030425_ibm.asp>

The key paragraph is the following:

"ScanSoft will Distribute IBM ViaVoice Desktop Products - IBM has 
granted ScanSoft global distribution rights to IBM ViaVoice desktop 
dictation products. ScanSoft will market, distribute, sell and 
support the product for the Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh 
platforms. The relationship leverages ScanSoft's expertise and 
resources in delivering productivity applications through broad 
channels and will help bring dictation solutions to a wider audience. 
IBM's ViaVoice desktop products complement the ScanSoft Dragon 
NaturallySpeaking family by expanding languages and channels for 
China, Germany, Japan and Latin America, and by adding 
Macintosh-based editions to its product line. IBM will continue to 
enhance and develop new versions of ViaVoice desktop products."

**IBM still has responsibility for further development.**

There is no way IBM would relinquish development of the ViaVoice code 
since parts of it are used in their high-end WebSphere applications.

I do remember reading a press release on IBM's site; but I cannot 
locate it (they don't keep all of their press releases online


-- 
----------
T. Patrick Henebry