Market Report -Voice of the Internet: Opportunities for Voice Portals and Voice ASPs

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Overview:

More Than 2 Billion Internet Voice Portal Users by 2005

More than 2 billion people will use Internet voice portals, voice-enabled Web sites, and Web-based interactive voice response systems by the year 2005. That is one of the conclusions of the new 244-page study, Voice of the Internet: Opportunities for Voice Portals and Voice ASPs.

"Voice-based services will humanize the Internet, extending Internet access to every telephone and making online shopping easier and more natural," said Paul Pauesick, Datacomm Research's Director of Research and principal author of the report. "By 2005, more people will surf the Web from phones than PCs," he added.

"This report explains how voice portals and voice application service providers (VASPs) will dramatically reduce costs associated with calls centers and customer premises equipment," said Ira Brodsky, President of Datacomm Research. "Voice-based Internet services will also spawn new competition for local, long-distance, and international telephone services," he added.

Voice of the Internet: Opportunities for Voice Portals and Voice ASPs includes an Executive Summary presenting forecasts for the number of IP telephony and voice portal users through 2005. The Enabling Technologies section analyzes key technology components including IP networking, speech recognition, voice extensible markup language (VXML), and text-to-speech (TTS). The Applications section discusses dozens of new applications such as talking avatars, family portals, call center/Web integration, and voice-powered e-commerce. The Markets and Business Opportunities sections explore strategies for existing and new players. Nearly 80 vendors are profiled including Audiopoint, BeVocal, Cisco Systems, DialPad, Ericsson, HearMe, HeyAnita, Lernout & Hauspie, Lucent Technologies, Natural Microsystems, Net2Phone, Nortel Networks, Nuance Communications, PhoneRun.com, Quack.com, SpeechWorks International, Webley Systems, and many more.

Opportunities for Voice Portals and Voice ASPs:

Voice portals and voice-enabled Web sites will breathe new life into an old invention: the telephone. Voice portals will enable bricks-and-mortar ventures to exploit Internet-based e-commerce and customer relationship management solutions. Voice buttons on business Web sites will enhance sales and service, providing a richer shopping experience. VxML will extend the Internet's reach to all telephones.
Incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) must divorce services from the central office in order to survive. But legacy systems, employee resistance, and shareholder addiction to dividends will hinder ILECs, creating huge opportunities for voice application service providers (VASPs) offering "virtual central office" services.
Voice ASPs will enable organizations to reduce their investment in telephone equipment, support personnel, training, and facilities. Voice ASPs will gradually absorb today's interactive voice response (IVR) applications.
Voice portals will become an important information source for mobile users. New voice services will complement microbrowsers, helping get data into and out of small handheld devices. The most successful voice portals will be those best prepared to absorb high production costs, provide local flavor, and quickly scale up their systems.
Personal digital assistants will succeed as Net-based, talking avatars (also known as 'virtual humans' or 'verbots'). Virtual humans will serve as intermediaries between people and things--from e-commerce sites to home security systems.
IP telephony will empower ISPs and cable TV operators to enter the telephone business. IP telephony will permit rich media calling (accessing electronic catalogues), community calling (conferencing with friends), and family portals (with family trees as site maps). IP telephony will also enable narrowcasting music and other audio content, with mobile phones serving as Internet radios.