Mikey CampbellIn an interview last week with Forbes, Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie said that Siri's capabilities are not Apple-specific, and notes that Windows Phone's similar "Tellme" technology has been functional for over a year.
"The Tellme facility's been in the Windows 7 phone for more than a year," Mundie said. "So I mean I just think people are infatuated with Apple announcing [Siri]."
Mundie goes on to say that Apple's marketing prowess is something that Microsoft could learn from, though he feels that the iPhone maker had to focus on the voice technology due to lack of new features on the iPhone 4S.
"In a sense, you know, many people were disappointed with [Apple's] newest phone because it wasn't a completely new thing, so the only thing they really had to hammer on was that feature," Mundie said. "Maybe we need to pick a feature and hammer on it harder."
The transition from Windows Mobile to the current Windows Phone platform has been difficult for Microsoft, said Mundie. The Redmond, Wash. tech giant had to overcome "errors" in moving from the old OS, which was targeted at enterprise users, to a new consumer driven model.
Mundie hopes that Windows Phone will become a major player in the mobile market, noting the recent partnership with Nokia is "huge" in making the the platform successful.
Craig Mundie interview with Forbes' Eric Savitz at Techonomy Conference | Source: Forbes
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144 Comments
To be fair, Windows has terrible marketing. Especially with Windows Phone 7. That ad company should have been fired. Intially, I thought the point of the ad was to show how addicting the phone is. Only to see at teh end I would be on it less. \
Well, now we know who's in charge of the people whining about "THE CASE DIDN'T CHANGE, THE CASE DIDN'T CHANGE. SAME PHONE. SAME PHONE."
I'd like to see CNET or someone do a comparo of iPhone's Siri to Windows' whatever. After so many years of second-class implementation of whatever Apple does, Windows doesn't have much cred, especially right out of the gate.
Actually, one of the main Siri engineers was quoted saying something to this effect: "AI isn't the breakthrough here, it's natural language. You can speak to Siri like a human. And she talks back like a real personality. That creates an illusion."
Yes, the grandest dreams of AI probably aren't even possible. You'll always be able to tell the difference between a computer and a human if you know where to look.
What Siri is is very good natural language recognition, and a corps of people writing her scripts. The actual "intelligence" now is limited. Answer simple questions yourself, and those without an answer, or send the user to other databases, including Google. It's enough.
If windows phone had this why didn't why market that into the phone. I mean when Apple announces a new phone they show how great all the features are. Microsoft never does this do they? They leave it up to the buyer to figure out what the windows phone can do.