Microsoft is about to stir the speech recognition market with the launch of its Speech Server products next week. The vendor promises speech recognition for the masses, but analysts warn that speech-enabling applications is not easy.

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates is scheduled to formally launch Speech Server 2004 Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition at the SpeechTEK conference in San Francisco next week. The launch marks the company's entry into the server-based speech recognition market where it will compete with vendors including Nuance Communications, ScanSoft and IBM.

"Our goal is to make speech recognition technologies mainstream," said James Mastan, director of marketing for the Microsoft's Speech Server group. Microsoft's way to do that is by making speech recognition available at lower cost and easier to deploy, manage, develop and maintain than competing products, he said.

The pitch is simple. Developers can add speech capabilities to existing Web applications based on Microsoft's ASP application framework by adding code based on XML and  Speech Application Language Tags (SALT) technologies using Visual Studio .Net. Speech Server takes calls and communicates with the Web server through XML and SALT and makes applications offered online available through the phone, Mastan said.

Speech Server runs on Windows Server 2003. The Enterprise Edition needs to run on a separate physical server while Standard Edition, designed for small and medium-sized installations, can be placed on the same hardware as the Web server. Microsoft will recommend configurations and resellers will offer fully configured systems, Mastan said.

Users will like Speech Server because it is familiar, Mastan said. Developers can use Visual Studio and it runs just like any other Microsoft server product. "It is not some black box in a call center that you have to program for in some weird language and you can't maintain yourself because you don't know how it works," he said.

Microsoft's entry will stir the speech recognition market, according to Yankee Group and Gartner analysts. However, Microsoft has to prove itself in the market and users need to be aware that creating a speech recognition system is more complex than Microsoft makes it sound in its marketing messages, they said.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.