Arlington, Va. — The recent rise of mobile devices has increased consumer demand for voice-to-text, text-to-voice, voice-control and video-chat capabilities, according to the recent the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) studies.
Three “Eye on Emerging Technology” studies — “Voice-to-Text and Text-to-Voice,” “Voice Control” and “Video Chat” — each take an in-depth look at consumer awareness, interest, ownership, satisfaction, future usage expectations, adoption trends, and desired improvements in mobile device features and operation.
The first step for adoption of any new product or technology is awareness, and the CEA studies show consumer awareness of all three technologies is high. Awareness is comparable for voice-to-text and text-to-voice technologies, with nearly 50 percent of the online U.S. adult population having seen or heard something about the technology in the past 12 months. Awareness of voice-control and video-chat technologies also are high, with 62 percent and 65 percent, respectively, of online U.S. adults having some familiarity with the specific feature.
Consumer interest in owning a device capable of these technologies also is considerable; voice-to-text ranks slightly higher than text-to-voice, with one-third (34 percent) of those surveyed interested in ownership, compared with 29 percent for text-to-voice. One-third (34 percent) of consumers express interest in future ownership of devices with voice-control capabilities, and 23 percent express interest in video-chat abilities.
“Mobile devices, such as powerful smartphones and tablet computers, are increasingly coming to market with these features already built in and have, in turn, catapulted these technologies into the realm of consumer desires,” said Kevin Tillmann, senior research analyst, CEA. “These technologies are quickly becoming an integral part of Americans’ lives and are significantly changing the way in which consumers interact with their tech devices.”
The studies also identified areas of desired improvements. More than three-quarters (77 percent) of voice-to-text users would like to have better speech-recognition technology, and nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of text-to-voice users expressed the same desire. Nearly half (49 percent) of consumers would like to see improved reliability of voice-control technology and more than half (55 percent) of video-chat users would like to see improved video quality.
The series of studies were conducted in August 2012 and were designed and formulated by CEA market research.
