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Former Apple Employees Reflect on Siri's 'Squandered Lead' Over Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant
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How often is it you see individuals talking to their phones anyway? NEVER
Are Siri and the likes really the most efficient way to get things done? NO
Do we really need them now when we did just fine without them before? NO
Are Siri and the likes really the most efficient way to get things done? NO
Do we really need them now when we did just fine without them before? NO
I applaud this article -- million times.
It is healthy and it is "the emperor has no cloth" indictment of Siri.
Maybe (just maybe) this will awaken TC and his crew from its stupor.
As an aside, I was surprised not to find "Siri is magical" anywhere on Apple's official retort.
Maybe TC was off in Washington DC when the statement was crafted. /s
It is healthy and it is "the emperor has no cloth" indictment of Siri.
Maybe (just maybe) this will awaken TC and his crew from its stupor.
As an aside, I was surprised not to find "Siri is magical" anywhere on Apple's official retort.
Maybe TC was off in Washington DC when the statement was crafted. /s
For *phones* you might be right. That's why HomePod has really illustrated how far Siri is behind Alexa and her friends.
With a smart speaker in the kitchen there are a ton of hands-free tasks that actually make sense and make life more convenient. Do we need smart speakers? Of course not. But if I have one, I want it to juggle 3 or 4 timers with ease, play various media sources with a single request, control smart devices, and lookup information with an accurate answer the first time. Otherwise it's just a Sonos competitor, not an Echo competitor.
Seriously, we have an Echo, not a HomePod, and we have no interest in a HomePod anyway. That said, I had no idea Siri couldn't do multiple timers, but that would be a 100% mandatory feature for us. Nearly every day we use it. "Alexa, start a three minute timer for boiling water and a twenty minute timer for the chicken." "Alexa, how much longer on the chicken?" Stuff like that. It's a hugely underappreciated feature IMO.
No, it understands voice a lot better now. But it doesn't seem to do much more.
I just wish they'd open it up to all third party apps.
I remember Siri when it was still a 3rd party app on the appstore... I also remember that it worked better then than it does now. Jobs is rolling in his grave.
How is it that no one mentioned Eddy Cue? By far the most incompetent exec on the team, sinking billions into failed Siri, TV and iWorks apps. It should be clear that the reason why we have Alexa, YouTube TV and Roku running circles around Apple is because Cue managed to fumble his way through a leadership position for so long. Shame on investors for staying quiet, shame on the board, and shame on Cook.
Research has shown that voice assisted technology has the IQ of about a 6-year old - so perhaps I’m oversimplifying here, but I think the issue with voice assisted technology in general is that it hasn’t matured to the level we expect (no pun intended).
Steve Jobs had it right: focus. They need to stay focused on 2 or 3 things and master them. Then move on. Now they’re spread out over many many different services and doing all of them without doing them well. I love their services but i miss the intense dedication to the good ones
I bought a Google Home when it was on sale for $79 this past Black Friday. Google Assistant is superior in every way, EXCEPT HomeKit. While I use Siri for home automation, I've allowed the wall garden to crack by using Google Play Music and Google Home Max over the HomePod. Siri is in drastic need of repair.
My guess is that Apple simply cant do it. The processing you need for accurate voice recognition in a timely fashion that is scalable in the millions and billions of requests is massive. Apple isn't in the "cloud" business in the same way Google, Amazon and Microsoft are. Only Apple uses other cloud infrastructure for their business. Google don't rent Amazon processing, nor does Amazon rent Microsoft processing etc.. But Apple seem to be another third party client for these tools.
So they are stuck because the machine learning and parallel processing needed to match Amazon, google and MS they dont have and have yet to develop it. And even if they started to do it they wont sell it to third parties and use them to test and prove their systems.
My bet is that Siri cannot be improved (otherwise they would have done it by now) and they are looking for another system or developing one that deals with it's short comings. It seems obvious, but when you think about it no other vendor of voice activated tools limits their capability by device only Apple. How can Siri on Apple TV or Homepod do less than the phone? Does that even make sense unless its because they are trying to limit it's usage because they cant handle the processing because ultimately Siri is badly architected?
Sometimes it doesn't pay to be first to market. Apple usually isn't first and can benefit from the mistakes of others. This time it's the other way around it seems.
So they are stuck because the machine learning and parallel processing needed to match Amazon, google and MS they dont have and have yet to develop it. And even if they started to do it they wont sell it to third parties and use them to test and prove their systems.
My bet is that Siri cannot be improved (otherwise they would have done it by now) and they are looking for another system or developing one that deals with it's short comings. It seems obvious, but when you think about it no other vendor of voice activated tools limits their capability by device only Apple. How can Siri on Apple TV or Homepod do less than the phone? Does that even make sense unless its because they are trying to limit it's usage because they cant handle the processing because ultimately Siri is badly architected?
Sometimes it doesn't pay to be first to market. Apple usually isn't first and can benefit from the mistakes of others. This time it's the other way around it seems.
What a fantastic manager he seems to be. "It was them, not me! I'm great!"
The official response from Apple says it all. They won't even acknowledge there is a problem with Siri which doesn't inspire confidence it will be improved significantly any time soon.
I don't think they have the capability to fix Siri and they should just allow us to run Google Assistant and Alexa natively if we want. As assistants become more useful, they will become a more important part of the buying decision.
I don't think they have the capability to fix Siri and they should just allow us to run Google Assistant and Alexa natively if we want. As assistants become more useful, they will become a more important part of the buying decision.
When your shares keep rising no matter how much the company is stagnating...why bother. That’s the new motto. You can’t blame TC for saving $$$ on R&D when folks still buy the old stock no matter what.
Sure Siri was revolutionary, but Apple blew it and allowed Amazon Alexa to gain a strong foothold. Apple also pioneered desktop windowing, but Microsoft overtook that position.
Apple is so arrogant they are incapable of true self reflection. They have become an arrogant, self absorbed, bloated company more focused on rapid emojis releases and rushing new products/software out the door versus hunkering down and fixing defects in their existing software.
Another example ... IOS 11 Bluetooth connection reliability is HORRIBLE compared to IOS 10.3.3. A recent call to BMW's help desk revealed that the entire BMW hotline staff are disgusted with IOS 11. One person told me that for the past 4 months, IOS 11 has been the bane of his existence. BMW went on to say that since the IOS 11 release, they have received thousands of complaints about IOS 11's horrible Bluetooth connection reliability. And because Apple is so ARROGANT, they will not allow users to downgrade back to IOS 10.3.3 until the IOS 11 problems are resolved.
This is what Apple has become and the Siri debacle is just another example. At some point, these issues will catch up with Apple, but for now, nobody really complains because Apple is making billions in profit.
Apple is so arrogant they are incapable of true self reflection. They have become an arrogant, self absorbed, bloated company more focused on rapid emojis releases and rushing new products/software out the door versus hunkering down and fixing defects in their existing software.
Another example ... IOS 11 Bluetooth connection reliability is HORRIBLE compared to IOS 10.3.3. A recent call to BMW's help desk revealed that the entire BMW hotline staff are disgusted with IOS 11. One person told me that for the past 4 months, IOS 11 has been the bane of his existence. BMW went on to say that since the IOS 11 release, they have received thousands of complaints about IOS 11's horrible Bluetooth connection reliability. And because Apple is so ARROGANT, they will not allow users to downgrade back to IOS 10.3.3 until the IOS 11 problems are resolved.
This is what Apple has become and the Siri debacle is just another example. At some point, these issues will catch up with Apple, but for now, nobody really complains because Apple is making billions in profit.
Sounds similar to how Apple stumbled with DEEP color !
Apple "could have" set the mobile industry on fire in Sept 2016, if they had introduced DEEP color at the exact same time they introduced WIDE color !
Actually, they didn't even introduce WIDE color that Sept, Phil passed the responsibility off to some Dude at Instagram to do the Intro, Go Figure !
Apple does well in markets where they have NO American competition.
They do NOT do well in markets where they do !
What does that tell you ???
Apple "could have" set the mobile industry on fire in Sept 2016, if they had introduced DEEP color at the exact same time they introduced WIDE color !
Actually, they didn't even introduce WIDE color that Sept, Phil passed the responsibility off to some Dude at Instagram to do the Intro, Go Figure !
Apple does well in markets where they have NO American competition.
They do NOT do well in markets where they do !
What does that tell you ???
When I saw the Siri presentation i must confess that I was in amazed. I knew that there would be faults but in typical Apple fashion I expected that in two to three years they would master it (in english).
As someone born in the late 70s that grew up with computers, watching TV shows and movies that played around human computer interaction, the fact that you would order your computer in common language and not pre defined verbal commands just seemed like some sort of end game. Check mate.
Today I don't even have Siri in my mother language. That is how much Siri is useful to me. As useful as someone scratching my car.
As someone born in the late 70s that grew up with computers, watching TV shows and movies that played around human computer interaction, the fact that you would order your computer in common language and not pre defined verbal commands just seemed like some sort of end game. Check mate.
Today I don't even have Siri in my mother language. That is how much Siri is useful to me. As useful as someone scratching my car.
"Squandered" is relative. I don't believe Apple is trying to be Google, at least in terms of using customer data and behavior as power for their AI.
Siri is absolutely better than it used to be. I appreciate Apple trying to get somewhere without using every possible data point at the expense of privacy to do it.
Siri is absolutely better than it used to be. I appreciate Apple trying to get somewhere without using every possible data point at the expense of privacy to do it.