In the wake of SpinVox’s less-than-successful July Demo, there have been steady rumors that the company is available for sale. #
Earlier this month, the UK’s Management Today reiterated the rumors and concludes: #
Its customer base continues to grow, and with a subscription fee of a fiver a month, it’s still generating revenue. It is also doing its best to spin its way out of the technology row, telling the BBC that people are used only to convert the bits that the computer can’t understand (whatever that means). Yet sky-high debts give SpinVox little room for manoeuvre, and the patience of its high-powered investors (which include the likes of Goldman Sachs and GLC but, notably, not the big tech-focused VCs) may not last. So pressure for a sale is likely to mount. But in view of recent events, will anyone still want to take a punt on SpinVox’s technology? #It’s a good question. The whole row has been about honesty and trust, not technology. #
On the plus side, SpinVox has been working with NorTel and Mutare to add transcription to NorTel’s voice mail capabilities: #
Visual Voice takes the spoken content of a Nortel CallPilot voicemail, converts it to text and delivers the message with personalized Caller ID and optional audio attachments to up to five e-mail accounts or any smart phone, PDA or mobile phone. It merges voice and data into one unified messaging experience and is compatible with any e-mail system or Internet-enabled device. #A slight digression: a few years back I knew some of the investors and staff of a local startup aiming to collect anonymised statistics from mobile operators about the number and position of cell phones to predict traffic for a smartphone application. They were well along when Google added traffic data to its Maps mobile application, sinking their business model. #
In recent weeks, Google’s launch of Google Voice got a lot of attention. But there’s been relatively little chatter about the fact that transcription is built into the service, and enabled by default. #
Google Voice transcribes your voicemails, and the automated transcription appears on the Google Voice website. This is the only fully automated voicemail transcription on the market. This means, however, that it’s not perfect yet. It will improve over time as our transcription engine gets smarter. The quality of the transcripts will vary depending on the caller, the background noise, and whether the caller is using a microphone. You can disable voicemail transcriptions at any time. #A new development is that Google Voice’s capabilities are no longer strictly tied to your Google Voice number: #
More specifically, if you sign up for Google Voice with your existing number, you’ll get: ##If you decide to also get a new Google number, you’ll get all of the above PLUS: #
- Online, searchable voicemail
- Free automated voicemail transcription
- Custom voicemail greetings for different callers
- Email and SMS notifications
- Low-priced international calling
- One number that reaches you on all your phones
- SMS via email
- Call screening
- Listen In
- Call recording
- Conference calling
This is a direct threat to third-party services (paid or free) like SpinVox, in part because Google’s reputation for data privacy is excellent. (And it looks to be superior to T-Mobile’s problematic Visual Voice Mail Android application.) #
SpinVox’s investors probably aren’t very happy. #
#