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Phil Schiller Says iPhone Was 'Earth-Shattering' Ten Years Ago and Remains 'Unmatched' Today

DanBig said:
Hush now, I'm waiting for Siri to answer ... Siri? Siri? I guess she stepped out.

Sorry Phil - Siri needs to grow up! Otherwise Alexa will take over.

Siri needs to be rethought. One can't be tethered to the internet 100% of the time for Siri or any other voice system. It needs to be designed with different interactive levels. Local commands should be known (learned) within the device (basic control). Then within ones home a hub device should be used for anything within it. Only when these devices don't know should the Siri server be invoked to look it up or respond (basically a tiered model).
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Alexa only works when connected to the internet.

Alexa really has only one trick. It comes in a device that has good microphones and costs $40 so you can cheaply have it all over your house if you want it. The cost is a huge part of why it is a revolutionary device. And I just set one up for my Mom over the weekend. She was thrilled by it.
 
Have to admit, I've just switched to Android. Siri never understood what I was saying, and my accent is as middle England 'British English' as you can get! I gave up trying to use it.

'Ok Google' is truly incredible. It understands me and rarely just sends me to a list of Google search results, it actually implements my request or finds an answer and relays the response back to me.

The times I've used Cortana I've found it better than Siri but not a patch on OK Google. A number of friends have an Amazon Echo and they have universally reported back that it is an excellent device.

The original iPhone really was totally ground breaking, and Apple continued to push the limits for many generations but recent versions have been much more iterative in their improvements, and their competition has certainly caught up: imo ;)
 
"Unmatched?"

Hardly.

Watching Apple is like watching the T1000 dissipate in the crucible of molten steel at the end of T2, only slower.
 
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Dudes, you are too critical of Schiller. He is just doing what his job title has him too. One should never take executive's talk seriously.
 
Lesser Evets said:
Today's "intelligent assistants" like Siri or Alexa, etc., are stunted and accident prone. They are on the level of novelty toys or those ridiculous robots marketed in the 80s that could carry a beer across the room with a platter of nuts. Most of the CES tech is similar: newer robots without sentience, strange vapor devices, VRbage, and so forth.
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Disagree. I find both Siri and Alexa to be extremely helpful to me and my family. Just because they don't work for you does not mean they are toys.
 
typonaut said:
It is absolute nonsense to describe the iPhone as 'earth-shattering'. It was a significant step forward in the art, but it was only an evolutionary step. Palm/Treo had been offering smart phones for a number of years before the iPhone emerged, and had a significant third-party developer base offering a wide-range of applications (including satnav).
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Sorry, but if you don't think the iPhone was earth-shattering when it debuted, then I guess nothing earth-shattering has ever been released. Palm/Treo had those things, but they were calculators compared to the original iPhone.
 
The iPhone was 7 years ahead of its time in 2007. 2014 and it was behind the times. Because colour options and missing features isn't innovation. It's desperation. :oops:
 
Yes, the iPhone is a revolutionary device, but I think critics are right to question the incremental 'milking' of each iPhone iteration.

We know Apple has next gen prototypes of multiple sizes and specs in development.
Holding back on some features for the next model year is almost a certainty.
It probably could have taken half the time to go from the original to the current iPhone 7.
 
Amazon Echo is an incredible product and is leading the way as this new market opens up. There's two in my household already and I'm not sure how we lived without them - that's how you know you have another 'iPhone' on your hands. Totally revolutionary, a brand new product nobody knew they needed or wanted. Home automation is going to be the must-have thing this year and in coming years. It could have been Apple, but they've been sat on their hands for 6 years.

Ps. BBC Radio 2 just did a piece asking people to suggest songs appropriate for the iPhone's anniversary. Some amusing choices.
 
Bigsk8r said:
Also, Blackberry was the 800 lb gorilla in the market, even with Palm Treo in it. iPhone changed all that and put RIM as we knew it out of business.
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Blackberry had an outsized reputation in the business world. Their sales never lit the world on fire. In 2007 BB wasn't even a 200lb Gorilla, it had just cracked the Top 10 phone vendors, along with Apple. Nokia was the 800lb Gorilla.
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/612207
 
AgentZeppin said:
Just because Schiller is employed by Apple doesn't mean he has to trumpet every product they have.

If Siri falls short then call a spade a spade and say it falls short. But claiming that it rivals Alexa, Google's Assistant, and Cortana is so discordant with reality that it comes off as a man afraid of committing a thought crime.
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He's the marketing executive. Which means he's paid to courageously tweet lies about a product.
 
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Dave245 said:
The expectations on some people really are ridiculously high. I can't believe that people don't appreciate the features of the iPhone.
When you think about it and everything that is taken for granted.

4K filming on a mobile device!

The Dual Camera on the 7 Plus really is great and so is the portrait mode! Although it is a software feature.

How thin and light these devices are.

Love photos

3D Touch

The power of these devices and so on. It's almost like people are dismissing them and constantly wanting something else. Things take time, being more patient is what's needed while actually appreciating the technology we have at our disposal. Of course that won't happen, people don't appreciate anything any more.
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Nothing to do with today. Looking forward more on the subject. If Apple cannot see the trend going forward, then their ability to innovate will be hampered. Phil Schiller seems to be sticking his head in the sand and hoping voice command devices will go away. To your point, yes the iPhone is an awesome device. Future, might end up more like the StarTrek Tricorder, voice only.
 
melendezest said:
The fact my teenage kids (as well as my wife and I) chose Galaxy devices over iPhone speaks otherwise, Phil.

Unmatched, my ass.
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But my wife and kids absolutely refuse to use anything Android. So I guess Phil speaks wise. FWIW...I purchased a Pixel when they came out. While a nice phone I sure do miss my iPhone. I am going to stay with the Pixel until the new iPhone comes out and then I am back to Apple. I try Android every year or so and always go back to Apple. Google just doesn't do it for me.
 
Google's voice assistant is just so much more powerful.

I asked Siri and Google two things - when are U2 playing at Levi Stadium, and when are Liverpool Football Club playing next.

Google quickly nailed both, Siri could not answer the first, and gave the wrong result for the second.

I then asked both how much rain fell in San Jose over the weekend. Google fetched relevant results, Siri gave me this week's upcoming weather.
 
Schiller opined that "the best intelligent assistant is the one that's with you all the time," such as the iPhone. Schiller added that "people are forgetting the value and importance of the display," which he said is "not going to go away."
​
He better not be like Steve Ballmer here and be in denial. I have Amazon Echos all over my house. They are awesome. I can just speak and get stuff done. "Hey Siri" might be something but it has to be plugged in, so it doesn't matter that it's with me. Now Google is getting into that space. Where's Apple?

Also -- Siri kinda sucks... :(
 
Zaft said:
My recent experience,

"What is the weather like in Ontario?"
Siri: "It is currently 21 degrees in Ottawa"

Louder voice: "What is the weather like in ONTARIO?"
Siri: "It is currently 21 degrees in Ottawa"

It finally got it the 3rd time. Ontario and Ottawa do not sound alike at all...
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Well, To be fair, "ontario" is a massive province that has a few major cities in it, and it's climate and weather can change dramatically over a few kilometres (my home for example is routinely 2-3c colder than my parents, 20km away)

So I can see Siri misunderstanding a question like that. And liklihood, it chose Ottawa because it's Canada's Capital, which is also in Ontario
Though, surprisingly, you'd think it would have selected Ontario's Capital, which is Toronto
 
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BruceEBonus said:
The iPhone was 7 years ahead of its time in 2007. 2014 and it was behind the times. Because colour options and missing features isn't innovation. It's desperation. :oops:
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Meanwhile the Pixel just now surpassed the iPhone 6's A8 in performance. While we're talking about 2014 ;)
 
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typonaut said:
It is absolute nonsense to describe the iPhone as 'earth-shattering'. It was a significant step forward in the art, but it was only an evolutionary step. Palm/Treo had been offering smart phones for a number of years before the iPhone emerged, and had a significant third-party developer base offering a wide-range of applications (including satnav).
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There are probably people reading thess comments that literally have never heard of Palm and Treo. Where are they now? In the shattered earth, that's where. If the iphone was just an evolutionary step, why does every single smartphone look like an iphone? I don't think Apple necessarily makes the best phones, but to say it wasn't a huge event in technology and maybe even human history is really underselling it. And lest you think I'm overselling the "human history" part, more than 10% of all the photos ever taken have been taken in the past year. That wasn't happening before the iphone. Obviously the iphone is not soley responsible for that, but it did pretty much kick start the arms race as far as phone cameras go.
 
Scarpad said:
I get a kick out of all you here. It seems people just bitch to bitch, especially on the internet. Always demanding something new and disappointed when it doesn't come fast enough. I still use apple products because I've tried them all from Windows Phones to android, and IOS still is after all these years the most solid and dependable OS. , The apps are still rock steady and usually stand quite apart from the same app on other platforms. The apple TV even has the better quality in apps and image quality than its rivals. The iPad has better scaling Tablet apps than the Android competition.

Look what you've got people it still works real damn well and for me its what i ask out of Apple Products
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at no point did the person you respond tos ay that the iPhone wasn't a great device

What the contention is, is that it has been matched, in many areas. And in many areas surpassed.

the iPhone is still an amazing phone. But to claim that it's "unmatched" is delusional.
 
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