Vocal IQ introduced the world's first self-learning dialogue API - putting real, natural conversation between people and their devices. Every time your application is used it gets a little bit smarter. Previous conversations are central to it's learning process - allowing the system to better understand future requests and in turn, react more intelligently.
What's interesting is that in 2014, Vocal IQ were working with
The big war brewing in UX is for the voice UX. - Vocal IQ
Vocal IQ, in a 2015 blog post wrote that while Apple won the visual UX, AI assistants like
Cupertino, it seems, is a master at spotting a company with excellent potential and technology but terrible at marketing, as Vocal IQ appears to have zero capability in this dept. A brief look at their blog and twitter feed almost confirms this which is why such a below-the-radar find is a steal for Apple despite no details being officially disclosed over the acquisition.
It's also interesting to note that while Apple has formal ties with
Apple believes this is the future of interaction with the objects we take for granted today, not just consumer items such as smartphones, tablets, TVs. The entire environment around us is up for grabs. The vision of talking to your computer like in Star Trek and it fully understanding and executing those commands are about to become reality in the next 5 years, not just explicitly but ambiently.
The report last year around GM and Vocal IQ exploring car interfaces points once again to the rumoured BMW-Apple Car (or Project
This is also a pointer towards how the future of the Apple Watch and the eventual form factor change of future smartphones in general will unfold. As I've stated here on Forbes before, the Apple Watch currently has no killer use case but it is a trial run for the future of the mobile phone. In fact, LG has proven this model by previewing the successor to the LG Urbane, a new smartwatch with SIM and LTE built in, allowing owners to leave their mobiles at home. A fully realised intelligent assistant such like Vocal IQ would accelerate this vision.
Launching Force Touch was the beginning of the end of how we traditionally interface with connected devices. Steve Jobs didn't see an immediate future for touchscreen iMacs for example, but Tim Cook is taking Apple in different directions and making his own 'ding in the Universe'. Apple's acquisition of Vocal IQ is an example of that ding, a much bigger play than just making Siri more intelligent.
Apple is aiming for an interface that completely rewrites how we interact with everything.