Josh Ong
The fast-paced ad begins with a shot of the Siri interface and then cuts to closeups of a variety of users submitting requests to the application. The requests range from practical to informative, such as "We have a flat tire," "I'm locked out" and "What does a weasel look like?"
"Say hello to the most amazing iPhone yet," the commercial concludes.
In typical Apple fashion, the TV spot eschews listing technical specifications in favor of highlighting the personal element to the device. For instance, Apple last year aired a series of ads showing heart-warming FaceTime video calls between people.
Apple took the wraps off the iPhone 4S at a press event earlier this month. Though some pundits expressed disappointment at the lack of a new form factor for the device, record numbers of customers have flocked to purchased the handset. Apple has revealed that sales of the iPhone 4S topped 4 million in the first three days of availability.
Wireless operator AT&T announced on Thursday that it had activated 1 million iPhone 4S devices on Tuesday, setting a record for fastest selling iPhone on the carrier. Sprint last week said that the handset has topped previous one-day sales records for the company.
Mainstream media outlets have praised Siri as a "standout feature" of the iPhone 4S. Reviewers were, in general, quite impressed with the virtual personal assistant, though they did note that the functionality is not yet perfect.
Apple competitors, however, have disparaged the service. Android boss Andy Rubin said earlier this week that he doesn't believe that phones should serve as assistants, while Microsoft's Windows Phone head Andy Lees dismissed the device as not being "super useful." Both competing platforms offer their own voice recognition features, though they lack the natural language processing that Siri has.
The Cupertino, Calif., iPhone maker purchased Siri for $200 million in 2010 and has reportedly expanded the team working on the feature to make it one of the largest groups at the company.
To learn more about the iPhone 4S and Siri, see AppleInsider's in-depth review and Inside Apple's iPhone 4S series.
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Amber Neely
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52 Comments
IMO, once again it appears Apple is going to main stream a technology. A lot of the pieces are out there, just needed someone to bring them together. Just the beginning folks... IMO
IMO, once again it appears Apple is going to main stream a technology. A lot of the pieces are out there, just needed someone to bring them together. Just the beginning folks... IMO
It should hit its stride on the iPad 3 and integrate eventually with all devices- iPhones and Macs together once Suri starts multitasking.
IMO, once again it appears Apple is going to main stream a technology. A lot of the pieces are out there, just needed someone to bring them together. Just the beginning folks... IMO
In this case Apple didn't really bring anything together, what they did do is mainstream voice tech that for a while had been relegated to some lab somewhere with consurmerability somewhere in the near future.
As they did with the first iPhone Apple took what was coming and decided to not be pussies like the rest of the field and put it out there properly.
Siri is nice and the voice recognition software is really accurate (no accent American). BUT, I am really disappointed that Siri cannot do something as simple as open an application...such as, "open ????". Sir also doesn't read back incoming text and emails. So much potential, but I will stick with my iPhone 4 for another year.
I confess I find this ad a little spooky. Everybody's head is cut off just above the mouth (except for the weasel girl). Like "1984" only backwards. Have we now become the faceless ones, listening only to Siri?
I'd like to know what they were thinking when they designed this ad.