For many years, educators in districts who have Macintosh Computers have been asking the question, "When will there be a continuous speech recognition product that would be compatible with the Mac?" Well here it comes ......
Dragon Systems,Inc. and Apple® Computer, Inc. announces that Dragon Systems will create and market Macintosh-compatible products based on Dragon NaturallySpeaking, a top selling retail speech product in the U.S. Dragon Systems Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder Janet Baker, Ph.D. announced the company's plans during the keynote presentation at Apple's annual World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC) in San Jose.
"It's great news for our customers that Dragon is bringing their world-class speech recognition software out on Macintosh," said Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO. "The underlying architecture of the Mac platform, with fast PowerPC processors and outstanding audio support, will make Macintosh the premier platform for Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Dragon's return to the Mac market is more evidence of the great business opportunities available on Macintosh for innovative developers."
"We have received many requests for a Macintosh version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking and working with Apple we're going to deliver a high quality speech solution for Macintosh users," said Dragon Systems Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder Janet Baker, Ph.D. "Over the last year we have seen Apple bring out some very innovative products and we think Dragon Systems will offer the ideal speech recognition solution for anyone who wants to extend the capabilities of their iMac, Power Macintosh G3, or PowerBook G3."
Dragon Systems' products for the Macintosh are planned initially for both American and British English, with the first U.S. product to be released later this year. French, German, and Japanese are also scheduled. Pricing, system requirements, and product specifications will be announced at product introduction.
Dragon Systems has a long history of supporting products for the Macintosh platform. Previously, Dragon Systems offered Dragon PowerSecretary™, a discrete recognition dictation system for the Macintosh.
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About Apple Computer, Inc. Apple Computer, Inc. ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II, and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Apple is now recommitted to its original mission&emdash;to bring the best personal computing products and support to students, educators, designers, scientists, engineers, businesspersons and consumers in over 140 countries around the world.
About Dragon Systems, Inc. Dragon Systems, Inc., is a worldwide leader in PC speech recognition. Dragon Systems develops and markets high-performance, cost-effective speech and language technology that, in multiple world languages (including American English, British English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish), enable users to create text, issue commands, enter and access data simply by speaking. The company also licenses technology worldwide through developers, distributors, resellers, OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and ISVs (Integrated Software Vendors). Dragon Systems ports its technology across multiple operating systems and hardware platforms &emdash; from hand-held devices and PCs to workstations, and is pursuing leading-edge research and development projects for computer and telecommunications applications. Since introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the first large vocabulary continuous speech recognition system able to create general purpose text, in 1997, the Company has received over 80 major industry awards worldwide.
Founded in 1982, Dragon Systems has its headquarters in Newton, Massachusetts. It has European subsidiaries in Munich, Paris and in Marlow near London, and additional research laboratories in Cheltenham, England (Dragon Systems GmbH, Dragon Systems SA, Dragon Systems UK Ltd, and Dragon Systems UK Research & Development Ltd, respectively).
Dragon Systems, and the Dragon Systems logo are registered trademarks, NaturallySpeaking, PowerSecretary, and The Natural Speech Company are trademarks of Dragon Systems, Inc. Apple and Macintosh a registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. All other trademarks are of their respective holders.