Speech technology company Nuance Communications has announced plans to purchase VoiceSignal Technologies Inc., another company specialized in voice technology and software, for $293 million in cash and stock. The objective is to develop voice-based mobile solutions and tap into a market for voice activated services and apps across mobile phones, personal navigation devices and cars. Mobile search is a no doubt a big part of this given the play it is getting across the industry as the interface that will ultimately and completely eliminate the input bottleneck from mobile devices. Vendor pitch aside, voice search is gaining traction as more operators (such as Verizon) recognize they can’t sell content unless people can find and request it. (Against this backdrop, expect a slew of voice-enabled services to debut over the next weeks. Mobile music services top the list since users can speak the names of artists but rarely spell them correctly on the keypad.) Press release

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