Microsoft's Tellme launches voice-guided movie search with Fandango

Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Tellme Networks launched a new service this week geared at mobile phone users who would like to purchase movie tickets from their handsets -- using only their voices. Partnering with movie web site Fandango, Tellme announced that the new service would allow movie information, playing times, driving directions and even ticket purchases to be accessed by pressing only a single button on a cellphone and then using voice commands. This is the first really useful customer product that has come out of the Tellme acquisition, and it looks to be a decent one -- but it's curious that a Microsoft product will work first on BlackBerry devices -- one of its heaviest mobile competitors.

From a customer adoption perspective, this sounds fantastic. The mobile carriers in the U.S. have no clue how hard they've made the standard cellphone to use. Packing so many functions into a standard phone these days makes them a jack of all trades but master of none. Try going to a regular web site on your phone's web browser, if you can find out how to even get to the web browser, for example.

As said previously, the Tellme/Fandango product will initially be available on BlackBerry handsets and devices and will utilize GPS technology inside these handsets to determine where customers are calling from in order to provide the customized, voice-guided movie information and ticket-purchasing experience. This appears to be a perfect solution to give cellphone subscribers a foolproof and easy way to access services without having to use complex cellphone menus, browsers and other tools. The partnership said the voice-movie service would become available in GPS-enabled cars soon as well.