ViaVoice vs. iListen

[Andrew Taylor]

At 8:45 AM -0700 6/19/03, John Foster wrote:
>>         MacVoice, Speech Recognition List Digest #686
>>
>>Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 23:25:09 +1000
>>From:
>>Subject: [MV] Re: ViaVoice vs. iListen
>
>It makes me truly sad to see Via Voice snapped up and sat on a shelf 
>perhaps to languish. Both companies involved are of course wanting 
>to sell in large quantities to major buyers, so do not hold your 
>breath for any upgrades
>
>In case any of you missed it, please look at the similar situation 
>of Dragon software as described on:
>
>>http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.02/code.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=
>>
>
>For as long as they can keep the struggle up, the folks producing 
>iListen seem to be the only hope for the individual user. I do hope 
>that the new Mac OS being offered this week does not require more 
>resources than Andrew Taylor (Founder/CTO of MacSpeech, 
>Inc.<http://www.macspeech.com>) can reasonably deploy and still stay 
>in business.
>
>The struggle to have a software package for individual users may be, 
>at this point, somewhat Quixotic. Maybe so, But I for one have found 
>that the release of version 1.61 for Mac OSX is certainly the best 
>game in town. Give it a try if you have not done so recently. One 
>sale at a time, hey even one upgrade at a time, may just keep 
>Andrew's corporate ship afloat long enough for us all to happy in 
>the long term.
>
>Have a nice day
>
>John

Well, maybe it is time to "toot my own horn" (and vent a little).

[warning: Rant on]

This puts a spotlight on why speech recognition on the Macintosh is 
in the state it is in. "Big business" makes its decisions based on 
"big numbers" that they haven't found in the Macintosh market. Since 
1993, when I got interested in speech recognition at Articulate 
Systems, this has been a passion for me. I have tried to create a 
great product that was also worthwhile for investors to invest in (no 
pay back, no money!). I learned what needed to be done, planned a 
series of products, and have been struggling against the "Powers that 
be" to get it done ever since. Name a company and they have probably 
done as much to put us out of business as they have to help 
(fortunately there were some non-obvious exceptions that made a 
difference). Net result - iListen is still not what it should be and 
not what it could have been, ViaVoice is what it is and Dragon 
Naturally Speaking was announced but never showed up on the Macintosh 
(but they certainly caused me heartburn and investment troubles for 
that time period). Despite all this, we have made progress and we 
have a product that people want to buy. There is still more to be 
done and given the opportunity, we will do it. To have that 
opportunity, MacSpeech has to sell product. So when the next "big 
company" shows up in the Macintosh speech recognition market, either 
be prepared to generate "BIG numbers" for them so they stay or ignore 
them and keep MacSpeech afloat and growing so you continue to have 
future enhancements to speech recognition on the Macintosh. Someday 
we need to be able to pay back the investors that got us this far as 
well as obtain new investment to continue to enhance our products. 
Passion for the Mac, the product and the technology is why I do this, 
cash makes it possible. It is really up to you, the Macintosh 
community, who will decide whether you want a company focused on 
Macintosh through thick and thin, or a Windows transplant that comes 
and goes, independent of your wants and needs. If you want MacSpeech 
and Macintosh focused companies like us, it would help to constantly 
make Apple aware that is preferable to a "big name Windows 
transplant".

Thanks for your support, apologies to those who feel that this post 
wasted their time. No flames to the list please.

(now back to coding!)

-- 
---------------------------
Andrew Taylor
Founder/CTO
MacSpeech, Inc.
<http://www.macspeech.com>