Many disabled individuals rely on dictation and text-to-speech tools for their work and social interactions. There are days when I need dictation software for physical reasons. With Nuance’s purchase of MacSpeech in 2010, I had high hopes for the future of dictation on OS X (now macOS) because Dragon is so dominant. Sadly, Nuance has a lousy track record with Mac products, and now Dragon Professional joins the list of discontinued Mac apps from major software publishers.
Nuance Discontinues Dragon Professional Individual for Mac
Wednesday October 24, 2018 7:18 AM PDT by Mitchel Broussard
Nuance this week announced that it is discontinuing Dragon Professional Individual for Mac, effective two days ago on Monday, October 22, 2018. The software is no longer available for purchase, but customers who purchased version 6 of the software and have a perpetual license will be able to keep using Dragon Professional Individual.As of now, Nuance will no longer provide updates for the software. Customers will still be able to receive telephone support for up to 90 days from the date of activating the software in North America, and up to 180 days from activation in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. They can also visit the Nuance Dragon Knowledgebase for online resources.
Nuances says its reason for discontinuing Dragon Professional Individual for Mac comes from “constantly evaluating its product portfolio to see how we can best meet the needs of our customers and business.” The software allowed Mac users to gain access to powerful dictation and transcription tools with an emphasis on streamlining user workflows, allowing users to dictate reports, spreadsheets, and emails, which Dragon converted to text.
Dragon is an essential tool for too many people. Apple’s built-in dictation software works — if you have an Internet connection and if you don’t need to use specialized jargon. Descript and Google-based solutions also require an Internet connection, a limitation that prevents me from adopting these for all projects.
Running Windows via emulation isn’t a good solution, either.
Apple’s Mac platform isn’t a small market. However, companies have shown little interest in maintaining their Mac software catalogs. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the trend accelerated. Though Apple remains a top-five computer vendor, software publishers see little upside to supporting Mac users. It can be frustrating when there are few or no alternatives to niche applications.
Apple’s offline mode for dictation works, somewhat, but with less accuracy than with an Internet connection. I assume Apple uses a more complex AI system via the Internet version. Still, at least Apple has a good dictation option without Nuance.
Maybe Apple will improve its voice recognition and dictation tools. If not, some users will be forced to switch to Windows.