Digital Summit 06: "Application Of Voice/Data Command Will Change The Mobile Industry"
by S Karat on Tue 17 Jan 2006 06:32 PM IST | Permanent Link | Cosmos
Reports by Radhika in Mumbai
If anything that is going to be a breakthrough in mobile telephony, it is the application of voice/data command, according to Arvind Rao, CEO & Co-founder of Onmobile Asia Pacific Pvt Ltd.
He further says that if you want to know the latest score of Cricket, instead of sending message to 123, any Hutch user can just give a voice command after dialing the number and say “Cricket”. This would be applicable for other commands like booking tickets for different destinations or requesting some particular features on mobile phones.
“Using speech as the primary interface is to create the new trend in mobile technology,” Rao said. But the full-fledged introduction of this service would not be as easier as giving a voice command, says Rao. “There are lots of technical challenges. Each and every circle of every service provider across its service region would need installation of some technical equipments, which are high in the cost. Yet it would also give an edge to the service provider who comes first. The service has already been launched on pilot basis accepting voice commands in Hindi and English languages.
“We are also launching it in at least 8 different vernacular languages. There are about 50 per cent mobile users conversing in vernacular languages, 30 per cent in Hindi and 20 per cent in English. Hence, the biggest market lies in the vernacular language speaking mobile users’ community,” Rao said. The company tied up with Reliance about three weeks back for the same service but would take a few months to become completely operational.
Arun Gupta, COO, Mauj Telecom
While talking about usage of internet on mobile, Arun Gupta, COO, Mauj Telecom, said that out of 50 million handsets in India about 10-20 per cent are capable of internet browsing. “However, it still remains a question that how many users actually avail of these facilities? Sale of GPRS and JAVA enabled phones is increasing but still there is the bottleneck of its cumbersome format of usability for the common people," Gupta said.
Addressing the industry top honchos at the Digital Summit 06, he said that the industry would still have to work hard on making the technology user-friendly. He emphasized on the need of making consumers aware of upcoming technology’s advantages.
