Amazon reportedly acquires Siri-like app Evi, may use in rumoured smartphone

A report in TechCrunch valued Amazon's deal with British Start-up, True Knowledge, developers of the app, at $26 million.True Knowledge had reportedly licensed Nuance's voice recognition technology to develop Evi. The app is available for both iPhone and Android devices.

While there is no official word on the deal from Amazon, Evi or its investors Octopus Ventures, to substantiate its point TechCrunch points out that several staff positions at Evi have been filled by Amazon personnel. The website also reports that as per Octopus Ventures annual report, Evi's directors have been replaced by Amazon's UK legal representatives. In addition to this, Mitre Secretaries Ltd., which is the corporate secretary for Amazon.co.uk is now also the corporate sectary for Evi Technologies. Furthermore, all the loans of Evi Technologies too have been mysteriously paid off.

It is noteworthy that Amazon had acquired Ivona Software, a text-to-speech software company in January 2013. Ivona's software has been deployed in Kindle Fire's voice guide, so it will be interesting to see what Amazon plans to do with Evi now.

There have been news reports in the past year that suggested Amazon is developing its own smartphone. If these reports are indeed true, then Amazon may put Evi to use in its smartphones.

On Wednesday Amazon took another step necessary before it can launch its smartphones worldwide. It announced plans to expand its Appstore to nearly 200 countries including India, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Papua New Guinea and Vatican City. At this point in time, Amazon's Appstore is available only in select regions including UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan, apart from the US. Amazon Appstore houses apps for Amazon's Kindle Fire range of tablets and other Android devices.