Nuance Communications Inc., has announced today that the T9 Text Input and VSuite embedded mobile speech software were both named to VisionMobile’s 100 Million Club for the first half of 2008.

 

This industry watchlist recognizes companies that have products embedded on more than 100 million mobile handsets worldwide. Nuance (News - Alert) is one of only two vendors who have two of its mobile solutions on this list.

At the top of the list is the T9, which has shipped on more than 3.75 billion units to date. VSuite has shipped on upwards of 215 million units across all major global handset brands. Nuance’s speech and predictive text input solutions are designed to maximize the user’s experience with the mobile phone interface for simpler, faster access to applications and services.

VisionMobile’s 100 Million Club focuses on celebrating software businesses twice a year that have succeeded in establishing a significant share in the mobile handset market. The T9 predictive text software solution also made the 2007 list announced earlier this year as it is considered the most pervasive shipping mobile software on the market today.

“Despite the apparent opportunity in the one-billion-a-year handset market, very few software companies have managed to overcome the commercial and technical challenges inherent in the mobile industry – as evidenced by the shortlist of 23 companies who have made it into our 100 Million Club,” said Andreas Constantinou, research director of VisionMobile, in a Thursday statement.

“Nuance tops our 100 Million Club with 3.75 billion devices shipped with the T9 software installed, a testament to the continued importance that predictive texting has as a de facto part of the mobile software stack.”

A predictive text solution that enables text-based mobile communications services included SMS, instant messaging and e-mail, T9 elevates the potential of mobile phone keypads to allow users to easily enter text, quickly and efficiently, and adapts to users over time. T9 Text Input is currently available in more than 70 languages around the world.

The VSuite 3 framework from Nuance allows users to tap into the most natural interface in order to enhance their overall mobile handset experience. Simple commands are used to engage connected services to support complex grammars and large vocabulary recognition for local business and Web search. In addition, device manufacturers have the ability to build and deploy custom text-to-speech applications.

“The mobile market is continuously expanding with new applications and services being made available to consumers; but new doesn’t always mean easy to use or find,” said Michael Thompson (News - Alert), senior vice president and general manager, Nuance Mobile, in the Thursday statement.

“Consumers need a simpler, faster way to access features, and the handset OEMs and operators we work with realize that mobile speech and predictive text software is a large part of making that a reality.”

This latest accolade for Nuance helps to further establish the company as a power player in the mobile speech sector. Nuance has done well to build its brand in speech recognition technologies. This latest recognition demonstrates the company’s strength in the global industry and its continued drive for dominance in a rapidly growing market.