Voice-based user interface technologies are becoming an increasingly important part of the user experience for smartphones, tablets, and smart watches.  According to a recent report from Tractica (www.tractica.com), this growth is being driven by a variety of use cases that include not only traditional applications like hands-free calling, but also high-growth areas like virtual digital assistants (VDAs), always-on interfaces, and voiceprint identification of individual speakers.

The market intelligence firm anticipates that these use cases will drive significant growth in attach rates for speech and voice recognition technologies in mobile devices during the next several years. Tractica forecasts that native speech recognition will grow from 45 percent of all mobile devices in 2014 to 82 percent by 2020. Meanwhile, voice recognition, which identifies individual voiceprints and may be utilized for various biometric identification and authentication purposes, will grow to an attach rate of 36 percent by 2020, even though virtually no mobile devices have such capability today.

"Aural interface technologies are rapidly becoming an essential part of the user interface for mobile devices," says principal analyst Peter Cooney. "They add functionality like voice authentication and also enable new applications, such as virtual digital assistants."

Cooney adds that the technology needed to run audio interface technologies is largely well developed, with components like microphones and audio processors being advanced enough to enable a range of applications. Tractica’s analysis indicates that numerous vendors are pursuing this growth opportunity, with at least 24 mobile technology suppliers providing product offerings in the audio interface sector.