After iPhone 4S Siri Announcement; Vlingo Voice App Now Free, Hints at “Next Gen” Product This Fall on iOS
One of the biggest pieces of news that came out of Apple’s highly anticipated iPhone event was the announcement of ‘Siri,’ a new iPhone 4S feature that lets you complete tasks on your phone by talking to it. For example, you can ask your phone the weather and it will actually tell you the weather. Siri combines artificial intelligence with iPhone voice commands by introducing semantic engines and natural language processing, something that has yet to be perfected but is currently being worked on by another mobile company not quite as big as Apple.
Cambridge based Vlingo, the maker of the Vlingo voice app has alarming similarities to Siri and they know it. In a blog post published yesterday by the company’s CEO Dave Grannan, he talks about the increased competition and the need for user choice, but more importantly he pointed at that the Vlingo app will now be free for all.
“While there is no debating Apple’s ability to package technology in a way that transforms it into a standard for consumers, we think that we have a unique ability to drive innovation within the industry as the last truly independent player….When Google Voice Actions came out, we felt it was unfair to ask our users to continue to pay for our application. We wanted them to be “free to compare.” We feel the same way about our iPhone product, and have pushed a new version to the App Store that will enable the full Vlingo functionality at no cost. “
This is an important move for Vlingo to make. When given the opportunity to use a free integrated feature on the iPhone or a paid application in the app store, I will use the free native feature every time. Vlingo understands this and better yet is lining up to go head to head with Siri in the next few weeks.
In addition to making the current Vlingo application free, Vlingo hinted at a “a brand new, next generation voice product that we will release on the iPhone platform this fall.”
Many might question why we would choose iOS to launch this new product as Apple prepares to make a big splash with new native functionality. Truthfully it was a question we thought about deeply ourselves. The last few years Apple has continued to surge past its competitors by delivering products that technically beat user expectations. So why would we try to compete? The answer is simple. Vlingo delivers choice that you simply cannot get from these “OS integrated” options.
We’ll be keep our eyes peeled for the new Vlingo release this fall. Have you used Vlingo? Let us know in the comments.