iPhone 4S’ Siri VS Microsoft and Google

In a recent interview, Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google raised eyebrows when he referred to Apple’s new handset and the vocal Siri on a slightly patronizing tone. “ I don’t believe your phone should be an assistant…Your phone is a tool for communicating,” he said, “You shouldn’t be communicating with the phone; you should be communicating with somebody on the other side of the phone.” Andy Lees, president of Microsoft’s Windows Phone Division didn’t show more fair-play to the rival’s success and commented that Siri “isn’t super useful.” He didn’t miss the opportunity to point out that Windows Phone 7 with its voice interactivity can connect to Bing and make the best of Internet power.
Both reactions seemed to reveal more of a frustration than a genuine disapproval of Siri’s importance. Apple’s new feature is obviously a new way of interaction between users and their devices and many believe that this is just the beginning.

iPhone 4S is most likely to have a powerful impact on users’ expectations from now on. Even though the technology isn’t entirely new, Apple managed to give it its own magic by fully integrating it in the operating system and making it a star. Rumors say that Apple is interested in voice recognition for almost two decades. Tim Bajarin, writes for TechPinions, that in the early 1990’s Kaifu Li, then an important Apple employee, was trying to develop voice recognition and speech technology, at the time called Plain Talk.
Siri’s know-it-all attitude relies on powerful databases, such as Yelp and Wolfram Alpha. When searching for businesses Siri connects through these databases to Google Maps and even if at a first glance, this could be a good thing for Google it is also vulnerability on the long run. Analysts believe that Google already fears that Apple could develop its own mapping system and with the help of an already highly praised technology Apple can cash in a big chunk of revenue from adds and business location.
In other words, for the competitors, Siri is not just a useless tool but a gateway for future wayw of interacting with devices. And Apple got here first.