Siri discountinued for existing iPhone users?

[jamarotta]

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[cyks]

Thanks for asking although your assumption would not be correct. The main point of the post was not about the notification, it was about discontinuing the Siri app for one group of users who've used it for two years and giving it to users that have yet to use it. However, since notification was in fact a side issue, I would have preferred either 'This application is no longer supported. You may continue to use existing features as-is or upgrade to the iPhone 4S for additional features and support'. And if that wasn't possible, then 'This application will stop working in 6 months. If you wish to continue to use it, please purchase the iPhone 4S during that period.' This last message, while not the preferred one, would take into account the backlog of availability of the iPhone 4S and make the transition smoother for existing loyal customers. It also would give people time to upgrade which is not an unreasonable thing for companies to do given the financial state of the current economy and also would have taken us past the holiday season/4Q which is typically the busiest purchase season of the year. 'Leaving for home on October 15th' did NOT accomplish the same thing.

Apple purchased Siri in April 2010. They very easily could have closed down all the servers then. Instead, they let everything continue as it had been working while they rebuilt and incorporated a new and improved version of Siri into iOS.

You're asking for 6 months of extra use time, but you have already received 18 extra months.

At this point, plenty of reasons have been given on why Apple chose to discontinue the old Siri servers, but it's clear that you'd rather stomp your feet and complain that they chose to take away a FREE application from you instead of continuing to pay money to continue supporting something that could confuse customers, possibly give users a less than stellar experience, and would ultimately take away from sales.

Thanks for opinion, although it did little to add to this post with any value of any kind whats over.

...and this post of yours did so much good for this thread?

 

[aristobrat]

Thanks for opinion, although it did little to add to this post with any value of any kind whats over.

FWIW, why tell someone that? When you reply like that, it's pretty much guaranteed to generate another reply from the person (and often others), adding even more "non value" to your thread. YMMV, but my experience has been that simply not replying to posts that you feel contain no value essentially drops the matter.

And if that wasn't possible, then 'This application will stop working in 6 months. If you wish to continue to use it, please purchase the iPhone 4S during that period.'

I guess Apple technically has the money to do it, but I really think they'd have to throw a lot of resources/money to scale the Siri app backend for it to handle the increased volume it'd see now that the iPhone 4s is quick making "Siri" a household name.

If that's the case, and it boils down to a simple business decision: pull the old Siri app, upsetting some customers and potentially losing their future business, or spend $x,xxx,xxx dollars scaling the old Siri app infrastructure to keep it running at a decent level for six months so those customers are happy, which decision does Apple's shareholders the most disservice?

 

[jamarotta]

Apple purchased Siri in April 2010. They very easily could have closed down all the servers then. Instead, they let everything continue as it had been working while they rebuilt and incorporated a new and improved version of Siri into iOS.

You're asking for 6 months of extra use time, but you have already received 18 extra months.

At this point, plenty of reasons have been given on why Apple chose to discontinue the old Siri servers, but it's clear that you'd rather stomp your feet and complain that they chose to take away a FREE application from you instead of continuing to pay money to continue supporting something that could confuse customers, possibly give users a less than stellar experience, and would ultimately take away from sales.





...and this post of yours did so much good for this thread?

Nope CYKS, you've twisted this once again. First, I am not asking for 6 months of anything. I was asked what other alternatives notifications I would consider and I gave my response to the member asking stating that 6 months notification giving users time to upgrade to the iPhone 4S would be a last (but not my preferred) alternative if you re-read the post. You seem to propose that people that use 'free applications' should just be grateful for them for however long they are out there. Well there's no such thing as free, especially given that many free apps include advertising with the hopes of generating revenue for the advertisers. In addition, users provide feedback to companies on their 'free applications' to help improve them over time, this feedback has some value to the companies (hence EVERY application in the Application store has a 'Rate me' button, write a review, or tell a friend).

Lastly, someone calling my opinion 'ridiculously obtuse and annoying' is certainly their right do so. It's also my right to respond to that allegation calling it without value and does little to further the discussion.

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If that's the case, and it boils down to a simple business decision: pull the old Siri app, upsetting some customers and potentially losing their future business, or spend $x,xxx,xxx dollars scaling the old Siri app infrastructure to keep it running at a decent level for six months so those customers are happy, which decision does Apple's shareholders the most disservice?

That's a good question. I hope that Apple in fact did that sort of analysis based on the facts, i.e. how many iPhone 4 users were using Siri, what percentage might become dis engendered customers by dropping it, how does that compare to the costs to maintain the application (or make the new application backwards compatible which is something that is commonly done with software), etc. etc.

As an Apple shareholder, I hope they have in fact made the decision which is in the best interest of us shareholders. As a customer, I still don't have to like it or agree with it but you do raise a good point.