Another view of Apple’s relationship with Nuance Communications offered up tonight by TechCrunch and this time claiming that, having dug into the ties between both companies more deeply, Apple could already be using Nuance technology in its yet-to-officially-open North Carolina data center.
In digging into the information about the relationship between the two companies, we had heard that Apple might actually already be using Nuance technology in their new (but yet to be officially opened) massive data center in North Carolina. Since then, we’ve gotten multiple independent confirmations that this is indeed the case. And yes, this is said to be the keystone of a partnership that Apple is likely to announce with Nuance at WWDC next month.
More specifically, we’re hearing that Apple is running Nuance software – and possibly some of their hardware – in this new data center. Why? A few reasons. First, Apple will be able to process this voice information for iOS users faster. Second, it will prevent this data from going through third-party servers. And third, by running it on their own stack, Apple can build on top of the technology, and improve upon it as they see fit.
Nuance technology, which already used to power personal assistant Siri, is expected to be “a big part†of iOS 5, reportedly set for introduction at Apple’s software-centric Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off June 6.