Nuance Survey Finds Consumers are Relying on them Daily for Content and Communication (…And Even Asking for Dating Advice!)

Burlington, Mass. and Las Vegas (CES 2013) - January 8, 2013 - In an increasingly dynamic and mobile world, our devices have become an extension of ourselves, linking us to information, entertainment and of course, each other at all times. As they become smarter and more intelligent, more and more devices feature mobile personal assistants that listen, understand, and respond to you. And the results of a recent consumer survey from Nuance Communications found that people are surprisingly more connected to those assistants than we could have predicted.

Nuance's Personal Mobile Assistant survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers found that 75 percent of respondents stated that they either have their mobile device "always on them" or "at hand." And the 90 percent of those who have a personal assistant feature on their phone use it because it's quicker, easier, and more convenient than traditional mobile use - with nearly 60 percent using it every day.

What are people asking their personal mobile assistants for? The most common were for driving directions (84 percent), the weather (72 percent) and restaurant recommendations (61 percent). Beyond the mundane, 20 percent have asked their mobile personal assistants for the meaning of life, and 5 percent even admitted to asking for dating advice!

Nuance's study also found that consumers are getting more personal with their mobile assistants - with some interesting statistics between the sexes:

  • More than half of all respondents cited a personal connection with their mobile personal assistant.
  • Women actually name their mobile personal assistant more than men, with 71 percent compared to a close 66 percent of men.
  • 73 percent of men feel comfortable asking their mobile personal assistant for directions…but 79 percent of women ask for help more often.

More than 80 percent of all those surveyed - men and women - would want that same mobile personal assistant to be with them at all times, and travel with them across all of their devices - phones, tablets, PCs, cars, TVs, apps and cameras.

People also have preferences on personalities of their assistants - further demonstrating how these capabilities are becoming increasingly human. Nearly half noted funny as a desired quality - and sassy by nearly a third.

Nuance's voice and touch innovations are powering a new generation of mobile personal assistants that enable people to stay connected through voice, touch, natural language understanding and artificial intelligence - broadly across phones, tablets, PCs, computers, cars, TVs and applications.

"The endless amount of content available on the mobile web is just tough to navigate unless you can cut through the clutter, and get straight to what or who you need," said Matt Revis, vice president and general manager, Dragon Devices, Nuance Mobile. "Nuance is making it happen by making technology more human. You can talk to it, touch it, and with Nuance, technology understands and anticipates your needs."

CES will get a sneak peak at Nuance's cross-device persona project "Wintermute" at Nuance's exhibit at the Cosmopolitan, which demonstrates how mobile personal assistants follow you from one device the next, remembering what you like, what you've been doing, and where you've been. Listening to the game in your car? Your TV will know when you ask to simply "put on the game" just which one you mean.

Nuance's Dragon and Swype innovations will be on display at CES 2013 in Nuance's experience walkthrough at the Cosmopolitan and in the South Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center, as well as in many other phones, Intel-inspired Ultrabooks, apps, cars, TVs on display at CES through customers including Chrysler, Ford, Hyundai, and ZTE - just to name a few.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Dragon Dictate for Mac, Dragon Assistant for Intel-inspired Ultrabooks, Dragon Mobile Assistant, Dragon Dictation, Dragon Drive, Dragon TV, Dragon ID, Dragon Voicemail to Text, and Swype enable more humanized interactions with the world's best devices and services. To learn more visit www.nuancemobilelife.com.

Methodology
The Nuance Personal Mobile Assistant Study findings included in this press release were fielded by independent panel research firm Research Now and responses were generated from a survey among 1,001 mobile phone owners from their online opinion panel. All respondents are between the ages of 18 to 45 and living in the continental United States. The margin of error for the survey is +/-3.1%.

About Nuance Communications, Inc

Nuance Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world.  Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications.  For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

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Nuance, Dragon, and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States of America and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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