V-Enable claims first mobile voice search patent

Following on from our coverage of companies operating in voice search for mobile, V-Enable of San Diego CA claims that the company is the first in the mobile sector to receive a mobile voice search technology patent.

V-ENABLE has been granted Patent #7,054,818 by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

"We are very excited to receive the industry's first patent on developing and creating a voice-enabled mobile user interface, which can be applied toward mobile search, directory assistance, navigation applications and more," said Dipanshu Sharma, VENABLE's co-CEO and CTO.

Sharma proclaims that "voice is the way to go" for value-added mobile search services, and industry watchers say it is likely to be a $11 billion business by 2008.

That is a big prediction, but the trend is right even if the prediction is ambitious.

The V-Enable website carries an article from the Investors Business Daily called Google Goes Into Mobile Search, But Wireless Carriers Resisting and for anyone interested in mobile search it is well worth reading. For example it mentions one of our poster-boy mobile search start-ups Medio Systems: 

But in September Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Vodafone and Verizon Communications, debuted its free Get It Now search service, using technology from search startup Medio Systems of Seattle. Subscribers can search for downloadable multimedia content from Verizon, including games and ring tones.

And Nokia pondering which way to go:

"From the Nokia point of view we need to play in all areas, even in terms of creating our own Internet experience (on phones)," said Tero Ojanpera, Nokia's chief technology officer.

And also, beyond the hype and the hope states the current state of play:

Google ranks No. 1 in wireless searches, just as it does in online searches, say two research firms, M:Metrics and Telephia.

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