Voice Recognition Usage Growing Among Smartphone Users, Says Parks

Forty percent of smartphone owners use voice recognition, said a Parks Associates report Wednesday. More than half of iPhone owners use voice control such as Google Now or Siri, compared with less than a third of Android users, said Parks. Among smartphone users ages 18-24, nearly half use voice recognition software, as younger consumers and iOS users are “exploring more intelligent features and interfaces, including voice control," said Harry Wang, director-health and mobile product research. Use of Apple’s Siri among iPhone users rose from 40 percent to 52 percent between 2013 and 2015, representing 15 percent of all U.S. broadband households, said the report. Growing interest in voice control is driving the technology into new IoT areas, said Wang, citing Vivint’s home security demonstration at CES using Amazon Echo and Volvo’s demo of Microsoft’s Cortana in connected cars.