Nuance, a software company specializing in speech-recognition and dictation solutions, has acquired Swype for $102.5 million, according to Reuters. Swype is best known for having developed the intuitive text-input app of the same name that's exceedingly popular on Android devices. Swype adresses some of the issues that smartphone and tablet users have with typing on small devices that lack a physical keyboard. Rather than just tapping virtual keys, users can drag a finger across the Swype keyboard, and the app will predict what the user is trying to write.
While Nuance is best known for its speech-recognition technologies, it happens to have a technology similar to Swype called Flext9 keyboard, also for Android. Before the deal, Swype was Nuance's prime competition in this area.
Like Google's acquisition of Motorola, this deal largely measures up as a defensive strategy for Nuance to avoid patent lawsuits. But it also shows how serious and aggressive Nuance is about becoming a leader in usability solutions. While Nuance does not use the word "usability" to describe what the company does, it's clear that many Nuance products don't so much offer a service in themselves, as change the way the user interacts with his or her devices.
Many of the most popular consumer electronics are inherently difficult for people to use. Smartphones, with their pocket-sized touch screens, require a steady hand to operate with any accuracy. Text can be painfully small; enlarge it, and you lose the ability to read fluidly, as only a few words fit on the screen at a time. As much as mobile computing devices have revolutionized what we can do and where, they are still hindered by usability problems. In a world where carpal tunnel syndrome and "cell phone elbow" are common phrases, plenty of users simply ignore problems with usability until they've become inured.
Nuance, however, seems to be positioning itself not so much as a speech-recognition company, but one working to improve usability of mobile devices through its software. And now's an especially exciting time to be recognized in that field, with Apple's recent announcement that all new iPhone 4S smartphones will include an application called Siri, a voice-controlled "personal assistant" that measurably improves the usability problems facing Apple's mobile line. If anyone can take a topic (usability) that, to date, has been associated with research, and instead don it with traits like "smart" and "cool," it's Apple. And once Apple finds a way to market a new idea as desirable, you can bet that other technology makers will follow. That's where Nuance could play an interesting role, creating partnerships with other hardware manufacturers that could leverage its products to make them easier to use.
Earlier this year, Nuance acquired four other companies: Equitrac, SVOX, Webmedx, and Loquendo. What's especially interesting about these other acquisitions is that the companies' fields spanned both the personal consumer electronics markets and several specialized businesses, such as the automotive industry and the medical field. If Nuance can maintain strength in both the business and consumer markets, it could be very well positioned for growth, both as a company and in terms of its influence on technology usability as a whole.