{"id":447187,"date":"2010-03-19T12:14:21","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T16:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"tag:contentnext.com,2010-03-19:article\/419-nuance-cans-spinvox-consumer-service-canning-staff-too"},"modified":"2010-03-19T12:14:21","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T16:14:21","slug":"nuance-cans-spinvox-consumer-service-canning-staff-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/447187","title":{"rendered":"Nuance Cans SpinVox Consumer Service, Canning Staff Too"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"SpinVox
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

When I spoke with SpinVox buyer Nuance<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

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.\n<\/p>\n

Today, Nuance sent me this statement…<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAs 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<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

SpinVox already had several contracts to supply the service through mobile carriers before it was bought by Nuance, though none in the UK.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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…<\/p>\n

\n

“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.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Last month, Nuance’s EMEA marketing director Alan Ranger told me<\/a> the future will be a \u201cnetwork operator proposition\u201d rather than a consumer service<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to focus on the direct-to-consumer market. We\u2019ll work on providing operators with a service to their consumers.\u201d On the service’s current users: \u201cWe\u2019ll continue to maintain it,\u201d he added. \u201cIt won\u2019t be a focus for Nuance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/img><\/a>
\n<\/img><\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":705,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-447187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mobile","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/705"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}