The 2010 Market Leaders

While it might not be completely ubiquitous just yet, speech technology is well on its way to reaching those heights, becoming the preferred interface with all that we do every day. Expanded processing power, improved software algorithms and system performance, and technological advances have all led to explosive potential for growth in all sorts of markets and corners of the world. Speech can now be found in everything from mobile phones and automobiles to battlefield translators and digital transcription, and there’s no let up in sight. It’s within this context that we honor the leaders of the industry on the pages that follow. The six categories cover the wide range of technologies and services—speech engines, self-service suites, analytics, security, professional services, and mobile search—and represent a culmination of months of research and dozens of analyst interviews. The past year has seen many changes in the leaderboards that follow, but one fact that should surprise no one is the ongoing pursuit of excellence that dominates every corner of our industry. 

Categories and Criteria: Speech Technology magazine’s Market Leader Awards name one winner, two leaders, and a vendor contender in each of six categories using a proprietary scale that involves input from industry analysts and consultants. The selection of these leader companies was based on a composite of the judges’ scores (based on a five-point scale, with 5 being the highest rating) in several areas, including affordability, customer satisfaction, ease of use, accuracy, speed, depth of functionality, and company direction. We then used a weighted scale for each of these criteria based on their importance to current or potential customers.