“Last Friday, we posted about the negotiations between Apple and voice recognition company Nuance,” MG Siegler reports for TechCrunch. “In digging into the information about the relationship between the two companies, we had heard that Apple might actually already be using Nuance technology in their new (but yet to be officially opened) massive data center in North Carolina. Since then, we’ve gotten multiple independent confirmations that this is indeed the case.”
Siegler reports, “And yes, this is said to be the keystone of a partnership that Apple is likely to announce with Nuance at WWDC next month. More specifically, we’re hearing that Apple is running Nuance software — and possibly some of their hardware — in this new data center. Why? A few reasons. First, Apple will be able to process this voice information for iOS users faster. Second, it will prevent this data from going through third-party servers. And third, by running it on their own stack, Apple can build on top of the technology, and improve upon it as they see fit.”
“Obviously, Nuance, which owns the technology, would have to sign off on all of this. And we now believe that they have. Hence, the big time partnership that should be formally announced soon,” Siegler reports. “All of this plays in nicely with our report that Siri would be a big part of the upcoming iOS 5 software. Apple is expected to show off iOS 5 at WWDC, but it would be launched this fall, as we previously reported. In order to work, Siri requires Nuance. When Apple bought Siri last year, they immediately began negotiations with Nuance to ensure that Siri was able to keep running. But it now appears that after months of tense negotiations, the two companies have decided that it was best to take the relationship a step farther.”
More info, including why Apple doesn’t just buy Nuance, in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Copying Apple’s next step may be more than a case of simply stealing IP, implementing it an uglier fashion, and then waiting for the lawsuits. Ripping off Apple’s next leap might not only be prohibitively expensive, but practically impossible.
Steve Jobs may be getting ready to say, “Let’s see you rip this off, you S.O.B.s.”
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Lynn W.” for the heads up.]
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