Amazon has acquired a voice recognition app (and the company that created it) for $26 million, according to sources speaking to TechCrunch Wednesday. Evi, a Siri-like app that runs on both Android and iPhone, was reportedly bought by Amazon late last year and joins Amazon’s portfolio with another voice recognition company called Ivona.
Evi has existed for some time in tension with Apple’s Siri, and Apple even went so far as to threaten striking Evi from the App Store for a time. Eventually the app came to the US and thrived on both iOS and Android.
TechCrunch cites as further evidence for the acquisition the fact that several staff positions at Evi, formerly True Knowledge, have been filled by Amazon personnel (example: the company’s legal counsel). Neither Amazon nor Evi would confirm the acquisition report.
Amazon does not currently have a smartphone outlet for voice recognition software; however, its Kindle platform could be ripe for such a development. The e-ink Kindles and particularly Kindle Fires can get quickly loaded down with a lot of content to wrangle and sift through; a voice-oriented personal assistant could be a good solution for rapidly pulling up a book the user wants to read, or a movie he or she wants to watch.
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