Kia will tap into Google’s APIs to bring Maps and Google Places data to its UVO eServices connected car platform, which will first be available in the 2014 Kia Sorrento and 2014 Forte. Hyundai will use a similar implementation in its Blue Link connected car system, though it didn’t reveal when or in which car models.

All three companies were short on the details of their respective partnerships — and are likely waiting for the grand stage of CES next week to reveal them — but it looks like Google is acting more as technology enabler than an app developer in both cases. Instead of allowing a version of Google Maps to be downloaded into the car, both Hyundai and Kia appear to be relying on their own navigation apps. But they’re liberally pulling Google mapping and location data from the smartphone and the cloud.

In Kia’s case it’s incorporating the mapping functions into its own UVO smartphone app, which will be available on both the iPhone and Android in the next six months. Meanwhile Kia’s Microsoft-developed in-vehicle platform will host several apps that will use Google map and point-of-interest data as well as local search technology. Google said in its enterprise blog that both Kia and Hyundai would also use its voice recognition technology to find and manage their destinations.

The vehicle navigation space is definitely getting interesting as web and mobile mapping software becomes more sophisticated and more cars get mobile internet connections — either directly from the dash or via a smartphone. Google is working with several other automakers, including Audi, Daimler and Tesla to bring its cartographic, Street View and search data to the dashboard. Chevrolet is also tapping into Google Local Search to provide business and point-of-interest info in its forthcoming BringGo navigation app.

Google isn’t the only tech company looking to break into automotive. Apple announced Eyes Free with the launch of iOS 6, which allows Siri to act as the surrogate voice assistant in the connected car. GM is supporting Eyes Free in upcoming versions of MyLink in the Chevy Sonic and Spark, and several other automakers are working with Apple as well. Eyes Free isn’t a nav platform, but it could become the interface for controlling a car’s navigation system or even a future in-vehicle version of Apple Maps once it works through the app’s laundry list of bugs.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• Electric vehicle outlook: 2012–2017
• Why Google Android’s Electric Vehicle Deal With GM Matters

AT&T promised in April to open Watson up to general development, but on Monday AT&T SVP for technology and network operations John Donovan made the launch official in a blog post, revealing seven different “contexts,” or language libraries, that app builders can access to speechify their products.

Like Nuance, AT&T has developed specific taxonomies for specific use cases, allowing its servers to anticipate the words and phrasing consumers are likely to speak in a particular context. Those tailored lexicons allow Watson (not to be confused with IBM’s artificial intelligence project Watson) to better capture meaning as well as intent from any given phrase. For instance, the question “where is Trenton?” would be interpreted completely differently if spoken to a Q&A app versus a mapping app.

The contexts are Web Search, Business Search, Voicemail-to-Text transcription, SMS speech transcription, Question and Answer, TV and a category called Generic used for general dictation purposes. The TV context is of particular note because it ties into AT&T’s U-Verse program guide, recognizing queries about particular actors, movies and TV shows.

In general, though, it appears AT&T is only licensing out fairly basic speech recognition and natural language understanding to general developers – features that could be used to build voice search into an app, but nothing that could be used to develop an expansive virtual assistant like Siri.

Watson, however, is likely much more powerful than these contexts let on. Vlingo licenses Watson’s core speech technology for its language servers (though that relationship will likely end after the Nuance acquisition closes), and Research in Motion’s QNX is working with Watson’s API to develop a conceptual connected car assistant. AT&T also has big plans to leverage Watson’s capabilities for its own products. In a recent interview, AT&T emerging devices president Glenn Lurie hinted that Watson could soon make it into its Digital Life connected home technology, becoming the voice-controlled virtual butler we see in science fiction.

Watson does have one big advantage to the average dev: it’s cheap – at least until the end of the year. For the remainder of 2012, AT&T will give free and unlimited access to the Watson APIs to any developer paying AT&T’s $99 annual registration dues. In 2013 a point-based fee structure will kick in. Registered developers will get 5000 points a month and any speech transaction of a minute or less will cost one point. Developers that exceed that amount will be charged $20 for each 2000-point increment, which works out to about 1 cent per transaction.

Image courtesy Flickr user Lazurite.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro
• Analyzing the wearable computing market
• Takeaways from mobile’s second quarter

What’s most impressive about Digital Life’s plans aren’t the individual apps, but the glue that binds them all together. If AT&T is truly going to build a service that will network hundreds of sensors, appliances and objects, there needs to be some kind of central intelligence to manage and filter that flow of information. There needs to be user interfaces that allow us to easily access and act upon that information. Otherwise, our personal Internet of things would quickly become filled with endless chatter, which, far from being useful, would actually be annoying.

Managing, filtering and redirecting that information, as well as building the interfaces that allow us to grok our home networks, are going to be monumental tasks, and I’m skeptical that a single company can put all of those disparate pieces together. But Lurie claimed that AT&T has the expertise and the resources to accomplish it. Luire isn’t just talking about building a simple iPad app or a management portal. He hinted at future in which we might be able to interact with our homes the same way comic book superheroes interact with their lairs: by voice command.

In an interview at Connected World earlier this month, I asked Lurie about the Watson voice recognition and natural language understanding technology developed in AT&T Labs (not to be confused with IBM’s Watson). Lurie’s division has already begun trials with Porsche and RIM’s QNX to use Watson as the intelligent interface for the connected car. Lurie wouldn’t commit directly to whether AT&T had plans to craft talking houses, but he did say that a connected home platform would be ideal use case for new technology coming out of the labs.

“I can’t make any forward-looking statements,” Lurie said. “But you can make some assumptions. When you think about the very high-quality voice recognition technology we’ve developed in AT&T Labs, you know we’re going to try to use it wherever possible. You’re going to see a lot more of it in the future.”

Building a platform, not just a service

While the applications and the interface will be the consumer-facing elements of Digital Life, the industry should think of it as an operating system like iOS for the home, Lurie said. If AT&T can pull all the pieces together, Digital Life’s developers won’t just be coding apps. They will be building devices and objects, which will be sold in AT&T’s online and physical stores and eventually on the shelves of hardware and electronics stores, Lurie said.

Right now, Digital Life is working directly with select camera, thermostat, door lock, power control and sensor companies (AT&T is still a bit closemouthed about who its partners are), but Lurie pledged to eventually release a software developer kit to third party devs, opening up the platform. Developers will then not only be able to link their appliances to AT&T’s digital home controller, but also embed their controls as apps into the Digital Life’s tablet, smartphone and Web interfaces.

What’s more those devs won’t just be building apps that sit in a vacuum. They will be able to interlink them, feeding information to each another and allowing the apps and their attendant devices to act autonomously on that information, either individually or in unison. For instance, a solar sensor could communicate with an app controlling a home’s window blinds, lowering them gradually through the day to block out direct sunlight while raising the blinds at the other end of the home to let in indirect light.

A connected refrigerator (yes, Lurie brought up that old chestnut) wouldn’t need to send you a text message every time the milk expired or the ground meat starts sending off spores. It could simply add those items to a pantry or grocery list app embedded within the Digital Life interface (and hopefully alert you not to consume them when you open the fridge door).

The key, Lurie claimed, is to make that linkage automatic and seamless. “When I plug that refrigerator in it has to come online,” he said. “It just has to work.”

Will AT&T become your home’s overlord?

Ceding that much control to a digital home platform sounds a bit scary, and Lurie was quick to point out that this level of interconnectivity won’t be for everyone. Digital Life will suggest profiles that cluster together groups of devices, but ultimately the power will be in the homeowners to decouple them.

If you don’t want your dishwasher talking to your coffee maker, that’s fine, Lurie said. If you want your home security system to text you every time the front door opens, rather than only alert you when it opens at a time it shouldn’t be open — that’s fine as well. Ultimately the power will be in the customers’ hands to customize these systems anyway they please, he said.

There’s also the issue of whether consumers or developers want to put this much power into the hands of their phone company. As the central control point, AT&T could become like Apple in more ways the one, determining which developers and which vendors make it into the Digital Life “app” store. Forget figurative walled gardens; AT&T could build virtual walls around an actual garden.

Lurie said AT&T is taking steps to keep the platform open, promising that Digital Life will be completely independent of its wireless and wireline consumer divisions. You will be able to use a Verizon iPad to access Digital Life, and you can connect your home to the Digital Life grid with a Comcast cable modem, he said.

But when it comes to acting as gatekeeper for applications and devices, AT&T probably won’t be making any apologies. Your home isn’t a smartphone. Apps linking into Digital Life will be able to access your door locks, your furnace and the cameras monitoring your children’s bedrooms. AT&T will keep its full API very close to its breast.

If we’re really going to achieve the Internet of things, we’re going to have to put a deep degree of trust in the entity that manages these interconnections. The question is: will that company be AT&T?

Feature image courtesy of Shutterstock user alexmillos

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution
• The big theme of MWC: How to live in a connected world
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis

For starters, Nuance is fully implementing into Swype the XT9 predictive text technologies originally developed by Tegic. Nuance has built on Tegic’s algorithms, though, expanding its prognostication abilities beyond just words to the formation of sentences and phrases.

For instance, the words “pit,” “pot” and “put” follow the same trace path on the Swype keyboard, forcing you to select from the right word from a menu. But by analyzing the words that come before or after the entry, Swype now can place the right word by context. It knows to use the word “pit” after avocado and “put” before the phrase “that away.”

The platform’s intelligence goes beyond just common language structure. Nuance says Swype will adapt and customize itself to its user. It learns to predict phrases and word groupings frequently typed by users. For instance, if I enter the words “Grandpa Fitchard” enough times into text messages, Swype will begin automatically filling in the last name every time I type “Grandpa.”

The new version will also learn from all of your missives, not just the ones composed through Swype. If you give it permission, the software will cull through your emails, SMS messages, Twitter feed and Facebook posts, searching for new words to add to your phone’s personal dictionary.

Nuance has already integrated its Dragon Dictation speech technology – and in some cases Dragon Go semantic search — into Swype, but with this latest release of its software it’s fully bridging the gap between spoken and tactile input methods. Dragon’s speech capabilities use the phone’s data connection to connect to Nuance’s language servers, while text recognition remains local to the device. But Nuance is now linking the two, allowing you to generate a new vocabulary of spoken words synced to your personal dictionary.

For instance, if you spoke an uncommon last name, say “Fitchard,” into the phone, Nuance’s servers simply wouldn’t recognize the word. The Swype interface would then prompt you to type the letters of my last name into the keyboard. It then forevermore associates that spoken word with the written text, creating a unique lexicon of recognizable spoken words for each user.

In addition, Swype now has support for 55 languages — both written and spoken — and offers a third input method (fourth if you count simple key tapping): writing out words by finger, which it then turns into text.

Nuance is selling the new Swype release to Android handset and tablet makers as well as making the technology available to other OSes via a software developer’s kit. If you don’t want to wait for an update from your manufacturer, you can try downloading a beta version for Android from the Nuance site.

A warning though: The beta installer doesn’t recognize all phones, and it won’t load on devices in which a manufacturer has preinstalled Swype in the factory. That involves a lot of Samsung and HTC phones. As with many things Android-related these days, you may be at the whim of your carrier or device maker when it comes to getting the latest version of Swype’s software.

Update: Nuance has told me that the company updated its device policies Wednesday when it released the beta to the general public this morning, making it now possible to download the software on devices that already have Swype factory pre-installed. I tried to download the software on my HTC MyTouch again this afternoon, and, true to Nuance’s word, it worked.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Analyzing the wearable computing market
• Who and what to watch in the new era of the living room
• The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro

Automakers are lining up to support Eyes Free. Apple showed a slide at WWDC highlighting nine car companies that would be integrating the feature: Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Honda, General Motors, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes and Toyota. Not on that slide was Ford, which just happens to be the most aggressive automaker when it comes to integrating connected-car technologies such as voice command and control.

It’s not that Ford doesn’t love Apple. In fact, the iPhone is a core device in its Microsoft-powered connected-car platform, Sync, which requires a smartphone to connect to the Internet, and hosts the infotainment apps Sync ultimately runs. In that sense Ford wants to integrate with the world’s most popular smartphone as closely as possible.

The problem is Apple may have just laid claim to a huge chunk of turf that some automakers view as rightfully theirs. And since Ford has been among the most aggressive in pushing the boundaries of connected-car services, it may very well feel Apple is asking it to give up too much territory

She who controls the interface controls the apps

Here’s Apple’s rather sparse description of Siri’s Eyes Free capabilities:

You’ll be able to ask Siri questions without taking your eyes off the road. To minimize distractions even more, your iOS device’s screen won’t light up. With the Eyes Free feature, ask Siri to call people, select and play music, hear and compose text messages, use Maps and get directions, read your notifications, find calendar information, add reminders, and more. It’s just another way Siri helps you get things done, even when you’re behind the wheel.

The big red flag is navigation. When you ask Siri for directions, it isn’t accessing Ford’s own vehicle nav system and services; rather it’s tapping into Apple’s new Maps service (also unveiled at WWDC). The other features, such as dictating text messages, playing stored music, and reading back notifications seem innocuous enough, since they tap into the iPhone’s core functions, not competing services’. But Sync replicates all of these features through its own voice commands, and Ford has every interest in keeping those features in its dashboard rather than ceding them to the iPhone.

Ford won’t make revenue off a dictated email, but it will off its own core in-vehicle navigation, information and entertainment services. Ford is also turning Sync into a platform, inviting third-party developers like Pandora, Stitcher and most recently MOG to develop apps that take advantage not only of Sync’s voice-command capabilities but the console display and dashboard controls.

If Ford, however, gives up even basic functions like message notifications to Siri, it basically starts ceding its platform, becoming a peripheral set of speakers and display to the iPhone. Voice is going to be the key user interface in the car, and it’s highly unlikely a driver is going to switch back and forth between two interfaces. So whichever company establishes itself as the de facto in-car voice assistant will have a huge advantage.

A walled garden moving at 60 mph

No matter how revolutionary and useful Siri is, it’s important to note that Apple’s virtual assistant is a gatekeeper to a walled garden. Integration with Siri isn’t an option for developers except those Apple chooses to work with, and so far it really isn’t working with any. Instead of working with developers to Siri-enable their apps, it is sourcing content from partners like Rotten Tomatoes and Yelp.

You can make the same walled garden claims against Ford as well. It’s actually allowing developers to build on the Sync AppLink platform, but today its dev program is invite-only. Ford, however, has said it may open the platform up in the future.

The vehicle represents a huge opportunity to become the new connected device every American family owns, and both Apple and the automakers realize that potential. Today we could be witnessing the beginning of a new platform war, fought not only over the car but over the voice interface that controls it.

Walled Garden image courtesy of Flickr user sportsilliterate

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution
• From car to cloud: the future of the in-vehicle app landscape

While typical phone unlocking programs require tapping in a short code or tracing a pattern on screen, Nuance’s technology uses two layers of security: biometrics, which recognizes your unique “voice imprint,” and a password or pass phrase – which in this case is spoken not typed, said Kenneth Harper, Senior Product Manager, Nuance. Nuance has been selling the technology for years to businesses and governments for use in their own biometric security systems – with 20 million voice prints on file – but this is the first time it’s offering up its technology to consumer phones and tablets.

Got a cold? According to Harper it shouldn’t matter. Its technology is designed to recognize the unique characteristics of a speaker’s voice even if it is compromised by nasal congestion – if your jaw is wired shut, it might be a good idea to disable voice recognition. As for background blather, Nuance has devoted a lot of brain power to picking out voices from ambient noise, though there may be limits as to how much precision it can implement in the software.

Much of Nuance’s raw power comes from its cloud-based services, which require a network connection to access. Dragon ID software, however, will be localized on the phone so users can unlock their devices even when they don’t have network connections.

Don’t expect to go to the iTunes App Store or Google Play to download Dragon ID, though. Nuance is selling the technology to handset and other device makers, which will implement it at the factory level. It will support English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean on Android devices, though Nuance said it will support other operating systems and more languages this year.

Update: Nuance has posted a demo video of the Dragon ID technology:

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Analyzing the wearable computing market
• Opportunities and challenges for mobile deals
• Carrier IQ and the continued erosion of operator trust

AT&T announced that in June it would be opening up its Watson speech recognition APIs, which will enable developers to build their own speech-enabled apps and services. AT&T has licensed that technology in the past to companies such as Vlingo but this represents an opportunity for all kinds of developers to speechify their apps. It also brings a challenge to Nuance, which has been lining up developers.

The APIs will focus initially on web search, local business search, Q&A, voice mail to text, SMS, U-Verse’s electronic programming guide, and a dictation API for THE general use of speech recognition. Other APIs for gaming and social networking will be available in the future.

At the event, AT&T demonstrated how its translation technology allows for simultaneous translated conversations between two people speaking Spanish and English on different devices. Users can speak into a VoIP app using one language and the AT&T technology is able to simultaneously transcribe and then translate the content into another language. AT&T already has a Translator mobile app that works with six languages but that requires both users to speak into one device. This holds the promise of people carrying on translated conversations anywhere in the world, similar to how TDD works for the speech or hearing impaired. The translation API is not yet available but will be released at a later date for developers.

One of the other cool demonstrations at the AT&T Labs event involved bio-acoustic data transfer. The technology uses sensors in a phone to recognize and transmit signals through a body using bone conduction. When touching a door handle, a user could put their finger on a transducer on their phone and push out a digital key that gets transmitted through their body and is received by a sensor in the door, which unlocks when it recognizes the key. The door would only unlock when it receives the unique signal that’s created by that person’s skeletal structure transmitting the original key. That could be an interesting alternative to other access methods that rely on biometrics or NFC.

But another intriguing scenario is being able to transfer data back and forth between two users with a handshake. If both people have their hand on their phone’s sensor and an app running, they can transfer a small amount of data back and forth through their touch. The two devices would recognize each other when the two people come in contact and would negotiate the transfer. Only a small amount of data — enough for a business card or small image — could be transferred in the time it takes to shake a hand. But it could an alternative to a Bump or NFC data transfer. Some companies are working on transferring data through galvanic skin response but AT&T said that requires daily calibration and can be more inconsistent.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Startup growth and the new recruiting ecosystem
• A near-term outlook for big data
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis

The line between your car and home entertainment center is getting blurrier by the minute as electronics makers and car companies take to the Consumer Electronics Show 2012 and the concurrent Detroit Auto Show to strut their stuff. Amid the flurry of announcements, one thing is clear: Car makers and their partners think drivers want entertainment at their fingertips. Or better yet, at their spoken command.

The trend caused one pundit to call CES, typically the venue for showcasing the latest smartphones and tablets,  the unlikeliest car show. This week’s dueling events illustrate how web-based software companies are trying to bridge the gap between their fast pace and the more glacial mode of the automotive world. Microsoft, Google and other tech companies are all trying to embed themselves more into the in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) business going forward. In that battle they will not only contend with each other but powerful incumbents like Bosch.

New data shows the trend towards more integrated infotainment electronics in cars will continue.  In a statement, Marcello Tamietti, managing director of Accenture’s Connected Vehicle group, speaking about Accenture research on this topic said:

In-vehicle infotainment systems are quickly becoming part of mass-market car-buying as the latest IVI technologies inside today’s connected vehicle are increasingly as much a determinant of sales as design, fuel efficiency and performance. As consumer desire for IVI capabilities grows, it will be important for automotive manufacturers to seek partnerships that can offer a sustained, seamless IVI experience.”

Read on for a sampling of automotive-gadget news coming out of CES and/or the North American International Automobile show (aka the Detroit Auto Show) on Monday.

OnStar opens up (a bit)

General Motors’ OnStar unit is giving select developers access to its proprietary application programming interface (API) and its Advanced Telematics Operating System (ATOM) in a bid to bring more infotainment to the on-board unit. GM claims six million users of its satellite-connected on-board units which are primarily used to summon help in the case of an accident or other emergency. GM offers the service to car buyers free for a few months to try out before initiating a monthly fee. Clearly, the company feels that adding entertainment value is one way to retain more of those tire kickers as paying customers.

The question is whether these partnerships will give GM buyers enough value for subscription costs since many of these capabilities will be available for less money from other sources. After the trial period, OnStar now costs $200 to $300 per year.

Aha wins over Subaru, Honda

Aha Radio, which aggregates audio channels for mobile consumers, said at CES that its service will be offered with select  2013 Subaru and Honda vehicles.  Currently, the Aha service requires an iPhone cell connection but an Android client is slated for release in the first quarter of this year. Aha also said it has added MOG, Rhapsody and AOL Shoutcast streaming audio to its play list as well as CBS Radio and a selection of audio books. Kenwood will integrate Aha in its next-generation head units. Aha already partners with Pioneer.

Telenav Scout navigates from phone, car, computer

Telenav said its new Scout personal navigator will help you find your destination from your iPhone or in-car system or PC.  Available now for free from the Apple App Store,  Users connect their Scout-equipped iPhone to a compatible vehicle for an experience that mimics a built-in navigation system, the company said. Scout opens to a customizable “My Dashboard” screen that will give them personalized real-time commute times, for example, the company claims.

TI shows off infotainment processors

As expected, Texas Instruments is using the show to preview the TI C6000 Jacinto processors and OMAP mobile processors both targeting automotive infotainment applications. The processors claim dedicated 3D graphics accelerators and video co-processors to support HD video playback and streaming. Both chipsets support HTML 5.

QNX shows concept Porsche

Embedded operating system specialist  QNX will show how it uses Bluetooth and Near Field Communications (NFC) technologies to  ease smartphone integration in a concept car  (a Porsche Carerra no less) and enable voice recognition to control the vehicle’s infotainment system.

Pandora adds Acura, Kia to its automotive BFFs

Streaming audio power Pandora added Acura, Kia and aftermarket stereo maker AudioVox to its list of partners in the automotive arena, bringing its total there to 16 companies. Pandora claims 125 million registered users of its service overall and as, GigaOM reported previously, is relying on automotive market to bolster revenue.

Canonical makes car bid for Ubuntu

Canonical is trying push its Ubuntu Linux for the IVI and TV markets. At CES, the company will demonstrate Ubuntu “inside” a variety of devices including cars, TVs, tablets and smartphones. Some of the products will use Ubuntu’s cloud synchronization and collaboration service, Ubuntu One, to access to digital content stored on a user’s Linux desktop. Company officials say Ubuntu One is a way to bridge different platforms to get your content wherever you are. This is Canonical’s latest attempt to push Ubuntu Linux beyond the desktop and server markets: Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth this fall said the company would try to entrench Ubuntu in smart phones.

Infotainment is OK, but safety first

Given all this hoopla, it’s interesting that the Accenture study, which surveyed 7,000 people in seven countries, found that while drivers definitely want better communications and infotainment at their disposal, safety was their primary concern. That points out the inherent challenge of in-vehicle entertainment. How safe is it really to update your Facebook status while driving?

A whopping 91 percent of respondents said they would love to see a lane-change, blind-spot warning system in their cars. And, 83 percent said they would like in-vehicle technologies that would automatically call a tow truck when the car breaks down. Nearly three-quarters said theyd’ like technology that would stop their car if the driver suffers a heart attack or other sudden illness. That’s about as far from Angry Birds as you can get.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• The coming living room OS war
• From car to cloud: the future of the in-vehicle app landscape

With its latest Smart TV platform update, Samsung plans to enable “smart interaction,” which will add voice and gesture control, as well as facial recognition to apps developed for its connected TVs. That will enable viewers to turn the TV on and off, open and navigate apps and search for content without picking up a remote control. The system will support between 20 and 30 different languages, using unidirectional array microphones to isolate voice commands and a built-in camera to recognize user movement. The system’s facial recognition software will also be able to differentiate between members of a household, giving them access to personalized profiles, preferences and apps based upon their previous activity.

It’s all very Kinect-like in the way that Samsung describes it, and points to a future where remote controls disappear and consumers interact with their TVs in a potentially more natural fashion. Of course, Microsoft is only one proponent of voice and gesture control that Samsung may have to contend with — rumors of an HDTV set from Apple that is controlled by the company’s Siri voice recognition software shows that others may also soon jump on board.

The big advantage that Samsung will have over Microsoft Kinect is that it’s opening up its APIs to enable developers to take advantage of these features. While Microsoft has increased the number of apps that run on its Xbox Live platform — including those which take advantage of its Kinect capabilities — it still falls well behind Samsung in the variety of applications available. Samsung has about 1,400 TV apps available worldwide, with users expected to download some 20 million apps in January 2012.

That app volume comes in part from an open SDK and APIs that are available to developers. That enables pretty much anyone to develop rich content experiences on its platform and take advantage of features like the ability to sync up companion mobile applications with whatever’s happening on-screen. With the introduction of its smart interactions capabilities, Samsung will enable developers to use gesture and voice control, as well as facial recognition in the next generation of their TV apps.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is still largely taking a walled-garden approach to its Xbox Live and Kinect apps — which could improve the quality of those that make it on the platform, but also limits the ability of third-party developers to reach its customers. Unless that changes sometime soon, Microsoft could find itself falling behind as new Kinect-like capabilities are added to other connected device platforms, like Samsung’s Smart TV or even Apple’s iTV.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Who and what to watch in the new era of the living room
• Takeaways from connected consumer’s second quarter
• Q4 Wrap-up: SOPA and the future of digital content

Mooly Eden, the Intel VP and general manager of the PC Client Group, was a one-man show, not only touting the many successes of Intel’s Sandy Bridge computing platform — 150 million such chips sold — but also demonstrating the latest Ultrabook technology. These small notebooks, around 18 millimeters thin (or less) offer what people want, according to Intel: great experiences in a small package.

Eden took a small jab at the tablet market where Apple’s iPad has the lion’s share of the market, and Intel is barely in the game. He mentioned that content consumption isn’t enough for these devices. “Consumption is good for cows. We are humans,” Eden said as he launched a demonstration of ArcSoft software for photo album creation. On the surface, the demo was about the Ultrabook experience, but you didn’t have to look deep for the traditional Intel message of speed and power.

Ultimately, the problem that keeps coming back to me is that Intel’s focus is on experiences already met by non-Intel devices. For example, the six main “experiences” Intel says Ultrabooks deliver are: Creation to Express; Not Needing to Wait; Unwired; Peace of Mind; Reflection of Me; and At a Price That Works.

I’d argue smartphones and tablets currently meet most, if not all of those needs; therein lies the problem for Ultrabooks. It’s not a consumer problem; it’s an Intel problem, as sales of traditional computers are declining, while sales of tablets and smartphones are rising.

Short of being powerful, portable laptops, there’s no new “experience” to be had here. Intel is even challenged on the final of its six target experiences, because it knows these devices need to come down in price. Eden suggested that when the partner ecosystem reaches economies of scale, Ultrabook prices would come down to mainstream price points. With 75 expected Ultrabook models due out this year, I hope those prices drop quickly.

Even as the current crop of Ultrabooks arrives though, Intel is looking ahead. So what’s the future for Ultrabooks? Thanks to the Ivy Bridge chip power, look for gesture-based computing, interaction between devices, and better voice recognition with help from Nuance. Impressive as these were, they aren’t new ideas, and for now, they’re concepts for Intel.

Speaking of old ideas, Eden was excited about Ultrabooks with touch displays. Haven’t we seen these for several years? They haven’t sold before in mass numbers, and they’re unlikely to sell again for two reasons. The ergonomics of such “reach out and touch” activities makes no sense for most standard computing activities, and this technology will add a price premium that will reduce demand.

Still, one concept really captured my attention. Intel showed off an Ultrabook that has a transparent area where the trackpad would normally reside on a laptop. It’s touch sensitive, so it can be used as a giant trackpad, but it has palm-rejection so as not to interfere with typing. Most impressive, however, was that the see-through area can show information when the laptop is closed.

Aside from displaying appointments, emails and such, a user could interact with this data without opening the laptop. I think this is clever, but it also says something about Intel’s lack of ability to enter the smartphone market. Why? Because the company is trying to move traditional smartphone activities — email, notifications, calendar events — to the laptop. Eden even said this was “so you don’t have to pull a smartphone out of your pocket.”

Even with that unique, forward-thinking demonstration, however, it still seems to me like Intel is trying too hard to invent something that’s just the natural evolution of laptops. In turn, its branding of Ultrabooks is more about solving Intel’s problem — less reliance on it as devices embrace ARM chips — than solving a consumer problem.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• How tomorrow’s mobile-centric data centers will look
• 12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012