IBM 1997 Annual Report Download - page 14

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IN1997, IBM UNVEILED
CONTINUOUS SPEECH RECOGNITION FOR MANDARIN
— a breakthrough from researchers in the Beijing
research laboratory we opened in 1995. Letting Chi-
nese-speaking people interact with a computer in the
most natural way imaginable — by talking to it — our
ViaVoice software extends the power of information
technology to the world’s most populous country, with-
out asking its people to shoehorn their language and its
6,700 written characters onto a Western-style keyboard.
As IBM expands in the world’s emerging markets —
China, Central and Eastern Europe, India, the nations of
Southeast Asia — we of course hire locally and make
local investments. But more important, we help an
economy mature. We transfer skills — through long-
term relationships with governments, alliances with
universities and joint ventures with local businesses.
And we create technologies like ViaVoice that reflect
the needs of people and their local culture. It’s the
difference between being in a market, and of a market.
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