Navigating Change....
The PELORUS Group
Market Research and Consulting Services

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: July 17, 2002

Contact: Greggory Blundell

Phone: 908-707-1121

Email: gblundell@pelorus-group.com

PELORUS FORESEES VIGOROUS CHANGE FOR GLOBAL TELEPHONY SPEECH RECOGNITION MARKETS

Raritan, NJ – A silent revolution is occurring, and speech recognition is the catalyst.  According to a new report from The PELORUS Group entitled “Global Speech Recognition Markets”, around the world, applications rooted in speech technology are winding their way into a myriad of markets and industries.  In public networks, speech technologies are being deployed to create a bevy of new services while enhancing old ones, transforming the telephone into a more dynamic medium.  Eventually, the phenomenon will envelope traditional dial tone, replacing it with universal speech dialing.  Meanwhile, speech technologies are helping enterprises improve internal telephone services and mobile systems.  They are being deployed in speech-enabled call routing, auto attendant, directory assistance, and virtual personal assistants. Speech recognition in contact centers is being embraced to control costs, enhance customer service, and improve sales.  Speech recognition is on the move, and it is gathering momentum.

Mark Thompson, Director of Research for The PELORUS Group, notes “Speech technology continues to improve.  The improvements include better modeling techniques, increased robustness of the core speech recognition engines especially in accommodating noisy environments, and larger vocabularies.  And vendors have grown increasingly adept at satisfying the specific needs of telephony.  Despite a struggling global economy, speech is forging inroads into a host of telephony applications.”

According to the report, total telephony speech market revenues include earnings from speech software firms, plus those that provide applications, services and specialized platforms based on speech software.  These areas generated combined revenues of $693.97 million in 2001.  The market will exceed $1 billion in 2003, growing to $3.869 billion by 2006. 

Enterprise deployments dominate today’s market with 40 percent of the total, 35 percent for carrier markets, and 25 percent for embedded (device and automotive).  However, by 2005, carrier deployments will lead with 45 percent of the market, 35 percent for enterprise and 20 percent for embedded applications such as mobile devices, phones and telematics.

Speech technology has been deployed the most in North America.  About 65 percent of vendor contracts are in North America, 25 percent in Europe and 10 percent in the rest of the world.  This will change over the forecast period, with Europe increasing to 35 percent and the rest of the world, led by Asia-Pacific, increasing to 20 percent.