Nokia Trademarks Siri, Alexa Competitor Viki; Finnish Company Preparing Own Assistant For Android Handsets?

Is Nokia the latest tech company to join the growing niche of companies investing in AI voice assistants? By the looks of things, it could be so. The Finnish company has even filed for a trademark that would name its own virtual assistant as “Viki.”

Just this Sunday, GSMinfo revealed that Nokia has applied for a trademark in the European Union for its very own AI assistant. The EU reportedly received the application a few days ago and per the document, Nokia described its new technology as a “software for the creation and monitoring of mobile and web assistants working with digital knowledge and combining all data sources into a single chat and voice-based interface.”

With this application, it’s pretty clear that Nokia intends to come up with a digital assistant for its devices. This just means the Finnish company is going to join the ranks of Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and other companies that are still in the process of completing their private assistants.

Apple has been the longest player in this market ever since it launched Siri in 2011. Amazon’s Alexa was introduced in 2014 — the same year Microsoft unveiled Cortana. All three voice assistants have already established a huge following in the tech industry.

Last year, Google introduced its own virtual assistant, called Google Assistant, alongside its Google Pixel smartphones. Because Google Assistant will not come to all Android handsets, Nokia may have decided to come up with its own AI assistant for its Android phones that are launching this year, as per PhoneArena.

Samsung is also in the process of launching its own service, which will be called Bixby. SamMobile reported last December that the South Korea tech giant intends to embed its voice assistant into all of the native apps on the upcoming Galaxy S8 flagship device. The company has reportedly claimed that Bixby will be more advanced than S Voice.