When Apple introduced Siri last year as a key feature of iPhone 4S, it became the cynosure for the Apple fanboys and tech media. Siri remained as a standalone feature on the market for months, until Samsung showed off its own voice assistant called S Voice featured in the company’s latest flagship model - the Galaxy S3. Nevertheless, S Voice is not the only voice assistant coming to market this year.

It is likely that a bunch of voice assistant apps will be available in the market by the end of 2012 as tech giants like Google, Microsoft, LG and HTC are working on its own voice assistant apps.

Google

Google is expected to launch its own voice assistant app, which is likely to be named "Google Assistant", by the end of 2012. Citing people familiar with the matter, Wall Street Journal reported last week that Google is accelerating its efforts to launch an Apple Siri rival. The Internet search giant, however, is not completely new to this market. The company is already offering a similar app called Google Voice for Android smartphones. The tech giant could further extend the functionality of the existing app to develop a new voice assistant, just as Samsung extended Voice Talk app, found in Galaxy S2, to present the new S Voice app.

Microsoft

Microsoft has been in smartphone market for some time. It failed to bring the desired change in smartphone world with WP7 smartphones, but the new OS, which it showed off last week, looks nothing like the previous version. One of the newly added features to Window Phone 8 is voice controls. Looking to score over Apple Siri, WP8 users will be able to communicate with apps along with controlling core functions and fetching data from Internet through voice commands.

HTC

HTC has recently teased a voice assistant app on its Facebook and Twitter page. Labeled as "TOP SECRET" on the top, the app depicts a dog interacting with HTC One X through voice controls. Of course, the app is not for dogs, but what it reflects is that the Taiwanese mobile major is working on an Apple Siri rival.

LG

The second biggest tech giant in Korea - LG - is also joining the bandwagon. The company showed off a new app called "Quick Voice" for its Optimus lineup of Android smartphones. LG is claiming that the Quick Voice matches Apple Siri's for most of the features, including new features coming to Siri with iOS 6. The app handles voice commands related to 11 applications including alarm, call, calendar, contacts, maps, YouTube and Web search.