IBM ViaVoice was a speech recognition software that was released in 1995. It was one of the first commercial speech recognition products to achieve widespread adoption, and it quickly became the market leader. ViaVoice was praised for its accuracy and ease of use, and it was used by a wide range of users, from students and professionals to people with disabilities.
ViaVoice’s rise was meteoric. In just a few years, it went from being a relatively unknown product to being the dominant force in the speech recognition market. This was due in part to IBM’s marketing muscle, but it was also due to the fact that ViaVoice was simply a better product than its competitors.
However, ViaVoice’s reign at the top was not to last. In the early 2000s, a new player entered the speech recognition market: Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Dragon NaturallySpeaking was even more accurate and easier to use than ViaVoice, and it quickly began to eat away at ViaVoice’s market share.
By 2005, Dragon NaturallySpeaking had become the clear market leader, and ViaVoice was on the decline. IBM continued to release new versions of ViaVoice, but they were unable to match Dragon NaturallySpeaking’s accuracy and ease of use. In 2011, IBM discontinued development of ViaVoice.
There are a number of reasons for ViaVoice’s downfall. One reason is that IBM was slow to innovate. While Dragon NaturallySpeaking was constantly adding new features and improving its accuracy, ViaVoice remained largely stagnant. Another reason is that IBM’s marketing for ViaVoice was not as effective as Dragon NaturallySpeaking’s marketing. Dragon NaturallySpeaking was able to create a sense of excitement and anticipation around its product, while ViaVoice’s marketing was more subdued.
Finally, the speech recognition market itself changed in the early 2000s. As smartphones and tablets became more popular, people began to prefer using speech recognition on their mobile devices. This shift in demand made it difficult for ViaVoice to compete, as it was only available on PCs.
The rise and fall of IBM ViaVoice is a cautionary tale about the importance of innovation and marketing in the technology industry. IBM was a dominant force in the speech recognition market for a time, but it was unable to keep up with the competition. As a result, ViaVoice was eventually discontinued.