Vietnam hungry for more Voice-activated apps

Voice-activated applications continue to gain popularity in Vietnam as the younger generation becomes more tech-savvy due to increased smartphone usage. How will such applications grow? Spire Research and Consulting shared its insights, published on the US Consumer Electronics Association’s blog.

Mobile phones are continually being revolutionized by new features and technologies – witness hands free features and navigation tools. The latest is speech recognition apps. Apple first explored this feature by introducing Siri – a voice-activated assistant – as a built-in feature in iPhone 4S mobile devices in 2011.

Smartphone usage in Vietnam rose from 20% in 2013 to 36% in 2014, which, together with its population of 90 million, has helped place Vietnam on the global map for new mobile app launches.

The growing popularity of Voice-activated apps in Vietnam is visible from a survey conducted in 2014 among 1,168 respondents, where 46% used voice-activated apps as a virtual assistant (search online), 40% for location search and 38% for note taking. Popular apps used by Vietnamese youth include iSago, Apple Siri, VIS, Google Voice Input and Microsoft Cortana.

At the same time, these apps do have constraints. Language is a barrier. Some locals are not able to pronounce certain English words identifiable by the app. Moreover, these apps operate on speech recognition from Nuance or Google where net connectivity is essential, as this impacts speech analysis – requiring strong network coverage, which is not always present in all parts of Vietnam. Background noise can also be an issue. These are some of the pain-points faced by Vietnamese voice-activated mobile apps.

Fortunately, investment by Vietnamese mobile developers into research and development (R&D) to upgrade voice-activated apps has the Vietnamese user community breathing a collective sigh of relief. Developers are working on integrating regional vocal nuances into the apps and adding a more user-friendly interface along with improved navigation.

Vietnamese users have given voice-activated apps high approval ratings on social media and positive comments in application stores. The voice-activated app in Vietnam is buckled up for take-off.

https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/media/vietnam-hungry-for-more-voice-activated-apps/

Comments

Ghana citizenships to boost economy

In November 2019, 126 African-Americans and Afro-Caribbean’s were granted citizenship, in a ceremony that marks 2019 as the Year of Return. 500,000 tourists are expected to visit Ghana during the Year of Return, a considerable increase from the 380,000 that visited in 2018. Visa on arrival for some and waive off of Visa charges have been introduced. The government also plans to invest in educated returnees to help boost the economy through employment. Is investment in human capital the way to boost Ghana’s economy? Read more: https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/spirethoughts/ghana-citizenships-to-boost-economy/

Indonesia’s tourism industry set to grow

Indonesia is now poised to become a popular holiday destination for national and international tourists. The growing tourism sector is becoming economically significant. Against that backdrop, the third South East Asia Hotel Expansion Summit 2014 gathered key industry stakeholders and service providers from Indonesia’s travel and tourism sector to discuss the market outlook and potential business opportunities. Jeffrey Bahar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting, was amongst the prestigious list of speakers at the 3rd Annual SEA Expansion Summit 2014 held in Jakarta, Indonesia. In his presentation, Bahar emphasized how the tourism sector boosts the economy. 2014 saw a record number of inbound tourist arrivals, at 8.6 million. He shared that Indonesia’s travel and tourism sector is expected to grow further due to the implementation of a common ASEAN Visa, expected by the end of 2015. However, the nation still struggles with challenges such a...

Artificial intelligence makes its mark!

The market for artificial intelligence is growing at a steady clip. The recent acquisition of the artificial intelligence start-up, DeepMind by Google for a reported USD400 million signals the commercial arrival of this technology. Moreover, with the global market for artificial intelligence valued at USD900 million in 2013, and with its proven ability to reduce manual processes, there is a possibility that it may eliminate many U.S. jobs. But if previous waves of technological transformation in human history are anything to go by, the resources this unleashes will go to creating new industries, markets and jobs. Will artificial intelligence put human beings out of work? https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/spirethoughts/artificial-intelligence-makes-its-mark/

Robots : Changing industries, expanding possibilities

Robots are now prevalent across many industries, not only heavy manufacturing. Today’s robots are more precise and can be controlled remotely, which is why there is a preference for them over error-prone humans in some parts of the services industry. With over 179,000 industrial robots sold worldwide in 2013, robots are now set to conquer a new arena – the household. What is a robot? The first thing that comes to mind when the word robot is uttered is a machine that imitates a human being, such as the androids from Hollywood’s Star Wars or Terminator movies. The reality, though, is that the hundreds of thousands of industrial robots operating in the world resemble high-tech machinery more than high-tech humanoids. A robot is defined as a programmable, self-controlled device with electrical, electronic or mechanical units. Robots have some advantages over humans when it comes to work – they have better physical endurance and are more adept at working under uncomfortable or da...

QE program unveiled for Eurozone

The European Central Bank (ECB) recently took a policy leap by launching its own Quantitative Easing (QE) program – a bond purchasing policy to inject new money to revive the Eurozone’s economy. Will it work? Leon Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting shared his insights in The Business Times – Views from the top section on the effectiveness of the QE program. With the launch of the QE program, the ECB hopes to boost economic growth and check deflation. This will be achieved through the purchase of both government and private sector bonds worth €60 billion from March 2015 until September 2016. Perera commented that, while better than nothing, the ECB’s QE program is small in comparison with the scale of the problem facing Europe. It will most likely have to be increased and sustained for some time before any results are seen. Moreover, the ECB runs the risk of trading short-term quantity for long-term quality of growth. This is due to the reduced ...

The Knowledge to Decide

Search This Blog