Daniel Eran DilgerShaw Wu of Sterne Agee wrote in a note to investors that "despite global macroeconomic headwinds, Apple continues to defy conventional wisdom with a higher-end product mix," adding that in “talking to industry sources, what’s driving the 4S is better than expected reception of its new Siri software.â€
Many pundits and some initial reviews of the iPhone 4S failed to see the attraction of Siri, hoping instead to jump on the bandwagon of criticism focusing on the "disappointment" that the latest iPhone wouldn't be named "iPhone 5."
Others confused Siri with simple voice recognition features already incorporated into Google's Android, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, and which are already available for iOS and other mobile platforms via third party apps.
Andy Rubin, the head of Android development at Google, insisted that he doesn't "believe that your phone should be an assistant" like Siri, while Microsoft's Andy Lees of WP7 was quick to say he didn't think the new service was "super useful," indicating his company would avoid having its users speak commands to their phones in public.
But it's selling iPhone 4S
However, Wu notes that Siri isn't just Apple's take on voice recognition. "What makes Siri unique and different is that its voice recognition works well (unlike competing solutions which are unreliable) and also offers artificial intelligence (AI) in helping interpret user commands and answer questions.â€
Wu reiterated a Buy rating for Apple and forecast sales of 26 million iPhones in the fourth calendar quarter.
Siri works as both a natural voice interface for navigating and editing local information, such as calendar, contacts, reminders, notes and emails, as well as an assistant interface for searching the web via conventional search engines (including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing) or specialized web services such as Yelp local search, Yahoo Weather and Stocks, or Wolfram Alpha.
As a natural voice assistant, Siri can be expanded by Apple to provide access to new types of web services, as its ability to interact with new apps, including Apple's Find My Friends, suggests that iOS will eventually enable users to use Siri to interact with third party apps, beyond the voice recognition that already works in many apps that use standard keyboard input.
While Siri requires a data connection to work, tests monitoring the amount of data Siri uses to provide its results indicate that the service uses very little data per request.
Apple's Siri is exclusive to the iPhone 4S, although hacks indicate it could work on earlier iPhone 4 models, iPod touch, and iPads, although its performance appears to be optimized for the A5 chip released this year. Apple may also eventually bring a form of the service to Mac OS X users.
Apple says the new service is regarded as being in "beta," and currently understands American, Australian and UK English, as well as French and German. Apple has promised that Siri will gain support for additional languages in 2012 including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Italian and Spanish.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
AppleInsider Staff
William Gallagher
31 Comments
The more I use Siri, the more I like Siri.
Here's something I wrote elsewhere in response to a person who was lamenting that Siri isn't very useful for them. I think it sums up my thoughts above quite well.
"I've actually been pleasantly surpassed how frequently I use it—goofing off aside. I definitely use it for the "Call John Doe" feature, but I also use it for text messages on occasion (sometimes to initiate the message, sometimes to dictate it), text dictation, setting timers and reminders, playing music (including playlists or creating genius playlists), map lookups and directions, initiating searches, and a little more as I gradually figure out more about it.
"Outside the Apple-specific features, I've found I'm using WolframAlpha queries more and more, and this use is gradually scaling with how much more familiar I'm becoming with WolframAlpha. It can actually do some pretty fantastic stuff. Hint: you can say, "Wolfram, [search]". for example, "Wolfram, what is the scientific name for weasel", or "Wolfram, random integer below 21". Edit: the more I think of it, the more I realize I use Siri for. There's math, unit conversion, information gathering (e.g. asking who someone is, or getting the definition of a word), and more. WolframAlpha has some good examples which might be made to work.
"I thought it might be good, but I didn't expect to use it for a whole lot. I never used the old iOS 4 voice control feature. I'm not sure if my fondness for Siri is because I've been using it more to become comfortable and familiar with it, or if it just has to do with my specific circumstances."
Well it should be. It's a wonderful feature. The best voice recognition I have used. Who remembers the crappy voice control on iOS 3 or whatever version it was. It was awful! They finally got it right. I can see a lot of people using this feature, whether they are experienced with technology or a noob, I think it's a very helpful feature for all types of users.
Siri is a member of the family now! The cat is jealous.
I don't have my 4s yet but in just dinking around I've found it great to do those basic tasks like setting reminders,clocks and sending short bursts of communication trivially easy for those without a speech impediment.
I don't have my 4s yet but in just dinking around I've found it great to do those basic tasks like setting reminders,clocks and sending short bursts of communication trivially easy for those without a speech impediment.
Your correct she is amazing. Here is a great quote from Mac Rumors on this subject:
Siri changed everything for me
The naysayers who don't find Siri terribly valuable amaze me. I use seriously 10x PER HOUR. If I want to send an email, I use Siri. For every calendar item I create (I'm a lawyer, I create a lot) I use Siri. For every deadline, reminder, appointment, telephone call, etc. I use Siri. When I want to split a tab at the restaurant, I use Siri to figure the tip and the split. To settle a debate I invariably use Siri. To set an alarm I use Siri. To set a cooking timer I use Siri. I asked Siri to learn my best friend's nickname and when I want to facetime him, or my kids, or my fiance, I use Siri. When I want to create a grocery list, I use Siri. When I want to listen to a song by Madonna I use Siri. To send a text, of course, I use Siri. When I need to remember to do something which I would surely otherwise forget, I use Siri. When I want to make a call, I use Siri. This is the functionality I've been wanting for years.
There's a brand new book available on the Kindle (and maybe elsewhere) called Talking to Siri: Learning the Language of Apple's Intelligent Assistant by Steve and Erica Sande (from TUAW) that sells for $4.99. Well worth the price.
Siri is not 100% perfect, but I don't believe that it needs to be in order to add tremendous value. Frankly, at 80% it's phenomenal. I think its accuracy is somewhere around 94-96%, and only getting better.
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