When I spoke with SpinVox buyer Nuance, as it began planning the future for the voicemail-to-text firm last month, it said it would pitch the service harder to network operators, stop offering new direct consumer accounts, but continue to maintain the service for existing subscribers.
That latter part now appears to be changing. UK users on Thursday started receiving SMS notification (how appropriate) that the service would end in seven days.
Today, Nuance sent me this statement…
“As you know, Nuance acquired SpinVox in December 2009 and, to further align with our commitment to serving our mobile operator customers and partners, we will no longer offer our voice-to-text services directly to consumers.
“SpinVox announced in September 2009 its plans to offer a free service through December 2009, and, while we have enjoyed directly offering consumers a free voicemail-to-text offering, it is our mission to offer our services to consumers as a standard feature in mobile service plans locally and globally.”
SpinVox already had several contracts to supply the service through mobile carriers before it was bought by Nuance, though none in the UK.
Many who first began using SpinVox as paying subscribers remained quite happy with it, despite the company’s financial woes and adverse publicity last year. But, while the brand is rather tainted at this point, the auto-transcription technology itself, when it’s not relying on human operators, remains well thought of, so Nuance is doing the smart thing.
At the same time, we’re hearing word of new layoffs at SpinVox’s Marlow, Cambridge, HQ. Affected staff are having one-to-one meetings this week. One report claims Nuance is “gutting” the company. On this, Nuance tells paidContent:UK…
“Nuance is continuing with the integration and consultation process in relation to the acquisition of SpinVox and therefore it would be inappropriate for Nuance to comment at this stage.”
Last month, Nuance’s EMEA marketing director Alan Ranger told me the future will be a “network operator proposition” rather than a consumer service…
“We’re not going to focus on the direct-to-consumer market. We’ll work on providing operators with a service to their consumers.” On the service’s current users: “We’ll continue to maintain it,” he added. “It won’t be a focus for Nuance.”