Microsoft’s Tellme Purchase Will Have Immediate Impact on its Car Plans

Authored by Scott Goldberg on March 14, 2007 - 6:46pm.

I spoke with Ruth Seymour yesterday, GM for KCRW, a Los Angeles-based radio station, and our conversation turned to internet connectivity in cars. She doubted we would see such innovation any time soon, and I assured her we would. But she continued to doubt. Perhaps her skepticism had to do with the disbelief that satellite radio’s end would be so near, something she predicted would happen once internet connectivity in cars becomes common. Afterward I sent a link to an article describing Microsoft Sync’s relationship with Ford and she responded via email, “I believe if this goes thru, other car manufacturers will follow suit.” Ruth, I believe you are correct.

Microsoft Sync, on display at January’s CES in Vegas, represents enormous possibilities. Now Microsoft has purchased Tellme Networks, a Mountain View-based voice-recognition platform. The Sync technology, pre-Tellme, already provided voice activated capabilities for music play and call answering. But Tellme will take Microsoft to a level many might not have predicted to be so close, even at CES.

The question about a car computer is how functional it can be for the driver. After all, you have that small concern – a bunch of 3,000 lb. vehicles flying down the highway at 80 mph – to think about. How much value does email and internet have when you can’t really use them without risking your life? Tellme represents a huge solution to that problem, and soon enough Microsoft will be dominating the entertainment and information needs of a piece of property you spend entirely too much time occupying: your car.

Remember that little piece of crap called a Zune everyone’s been so quick to bash, and that idiotic digital store that goes with it, the Zune Marketplace? Well they won’t seem like such terrible ideas once you’re using Sync’s technology in your car and finding the whole system goes much better with a Zune than an iPod. You’ll download or stream music, movies, and games while sitting in traffic, all without your eyes leaving the road or your hands leaving the wheel. If you’re not doing it, your friend will. When you try it, you’ll want one too. Microsoft will do it better than competitors that enter the space because of the lead time tweaking it. Does this all sound familiar?

Tellme is also proficient at mobile search. “Today Tellme already does more mobile search support than Google and Yahoo combined,” said Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft’s Business Division, on a conference call. There’s nothing new about voice activated calls in cars, but the way Mike McCue, CEO of Tellme, described the process, no comparables exist. “You can pick up a VOIP phone and you'll hear a question: ‘Who do you want to call?,’” he said. “’Call Jeff on his mobile phone,' [you’ll say].”

Microsoft has big ideas for the car, and they are applying them to everything else they've developed in recent years. The picture is getting clearer.

Scott Goldberg

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