Corel follows suit with voice recognition

Corel has followed Lotus' lead and added voice recognition to WordPerfect Suite 8. Demonstrating the application at PC Expo in New York, Corel claimed users can dictate up to 150 words per minute with an accuracy level of 95 per cent.

The company has licensed the rights to Dragon System's NaturallySpeaking software, which has the ability to understand the difference between words such as 'write' and 'right', Corel claims.

Meanwhile, Lotus has started shipping its SmartSuite Millennium Edition in the US, which boasts integrated speech recognition, using IBM's ViaVoice Gold technology for its word processor and spreadsheet applications. It also has Web-enabling features and Java-based jDoc support.

But Clive Longbottom, strategy consultant at CSL, does not believe voice recognition will give Corel and Lotus the boost in market share they are looking for. "Voice recognition facilities will not change the market for fully functional suites. Microsoft bought a share in Lernout and Hauspie last year, which is a market leader along with Dragon in speech recognition technology, so its future interface will also be voice-enabled," he said.
Longbottom added: "But this won't be incorporated into Microsoft's suite for some time. So it's a good opportunity for Corel and Lotus, especially at consumer level."