Poor unloved Siri. The voice assistant software with “an attitude” may have helped Apple garner a lot of attention during the iPhone 4S’ launch and made it the talk of the nation, but it’s now suffering some internal backlash. The problem is apparently more serious than reports that surfaced a month ago that said the late Steve Jobs wasn’t a fan of the name – something that took many efforts of convincing from Siri’s then CEO – until Jobs reluctantly accepted it. Now some reports are coming out saying that the performance of Siri would’ve sent Jobs over the edge.
With Siri not living up to expectations, this is apparently how said Apple insider justifies the belief of how the late Apple CEO “would have lost his mind” over Siri’s inadequate performance. What’s even worse, the former employee also said that those who currently work in Apple are all “embarrassed” by the performance of the voice recognition software. My thoughts: “That’s quite a sweeping generalization to make.”
Given that Siri is currently still in beta, it’s to be expected that it would hiccup every now and then when doing its job. The latest bump in the road was when Siri named Nokia’s Lumia 900 as ‘the best phone ever’, a mishap that was quickly rectified by Apple. The voice assistant also had a bumpy ride in the first few months of its life, which include several lawsuits for false advertisement and stage fright in other countries.
Despite the put down, like Apple’s many products, Siri is still considered as the one to beat. Is this a case of perception winning over reality? Whatever the reason, Siri seems to have set a new benchmark for voice recognition feature that other manufacturers and companies are trying to replicate and improve upon.
I say let’s give Siri a break. The feature probably is not even used that often by iPhone users, once the few first days of excitement die down. We are, however, still excited about what Google is planning to bring to the voice recognition software table, which is expected to come later in the year.
Post a Comment