National Press Release

ZURICH, Switzerland and REDMOND, Wash., June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- SVOX AG and Microsoft Corp. will join forces to speech enable in-vehicle communication, entertainment, information and navigation products. This new generation of in-car speech solutions will be designed to meet the automotive industry's growing demand for innovative, multi-lingual and high quality text-to-speech solutions. Working together, SVOX and Microsoft will be able to turn around projects much faster than the typical automotive industry's product development cycle. The latest Microsoft Auto 3.0 SDK with SVOX text-to-speech is available now.

Martin Thall, general manager of Microsoft's Automotive Business Unit, said: "SVOX text-to-speech enhances the user experience of automotive infotainment systems. Our expertise in software for multimedia, entertainment and communications solutions in combination with SVOX's long years of speech technology experience forms the ideal basis for a successful collaboration. SVOX has highly recognized know-how in the design of speech solutions for infotainment systems and their responsiveness and customer focus are unmet in the industry. SVOX has pioneered the development of mixed-lingual speech technology, which enables for example an English voice read the name of a Spanish city or a French street with proper pronunciation. This is particularly useful for navigation applications where names often originate from a variety of different languages and mispronunciations can lead to an unpleasant user experience."

"We are pleased that SVOX is part of Microsoft Auto 3.0 as our speech technology partner," said Martin Thall. "The extremely flexible and modular nature of our offerings makes it perfectly suited to provide a range of innovative infotainment solutions that transform the user experience by connecting drivers seamlessly to the people, information and entertainment they care about while keeping their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road."

"Thanks to this great partnership with Microsoft, we will be able to incorporate the rapidly changing trends in consumer electronics into the world of automotive electronics in a meaningful way," said Volker Jantzen, CEO of SVOX AG. "Working together, we will deliver a new breed of speech technology enabled vehicle generations."

About SVOX AG

SVOX AG is the leading provider of embedded speech solutions for the automotive and mobile device industries. The SVOX Text-to-Speech system, the company's signature product, is part of a full product suite of small, fast and multilingual applications that enable computers and other electronic devices to convert written text into natural-sounding and easily comprehensible speech. SVOX's focus on embedded speech allows for specifically optimized solutions, and its software architecture provides customers with a speech engine that can be easily tailored to their technical requirements and market needs. Visit http://www.svox.com.

Microsoft Automotive Business Unit

The Microsoft Automotive Business Unit is a dedicated partner to the auto industry, providing innovative technologies and flexible software platforms to help deliver simple, more reliable and cost-effective in-car infotainment systems. Developed closely with automakers and automotive suppliers, the award-winning Microsoft Auto and Windows Automotive software platforms connect drivers with a wide range of devices, services and technology while on the go, including hands-free communication, mobile device integration, customized navigation and high-fidelity digital entertainment. More information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsautomotive/default.mspx.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE SVOX AG