
Siri is Awesome, But Not for Apple - bteitelb
http://blog.teitelbaum.us/post/11053263401/siri-is-awesome-but-not-for-apple
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obeattie
I don't think this could be more wrong. Apple is not a company that makes
jewellery; it's a company that makes the world's most intuitive technology.

Whether their phones are considered "bling" or not is immaterial. Apple's
marketing strategy is a bit different to that: producing products that people
want to buy not just because they're fashionable, but because they're the best
in the world, and they help their users do more than improve their street-
cred.

Siri is a massive step in the right direction (if it works as well as they say
it does). The author is correct in that natural language interfaces have
sucked bigtime, but I can't think of a company better positioned to restore
confidence in it.

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freedompeace
Agreed. This is the very reason my next phone will be an iPhone. I have been
loving my Windows Phone for the past year -- it has the most amazing and well
thought out user interface I've ever seen, but the advantages and convenience
of Siri are undeniable. The convenience of its tiles is great, and the UI is
impressive, but nothing beats a Siri that is deeply engrained into the OS
itself.

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alexandros
"..have been done so poorly for so long and have for so long been associated
with poor service, that the technology itself has bad karma."

Like, say, smartphones?

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lurch_mojoff
And tablets… and portable music players… and small and light laptops… and…

The sentence you quote does look outright ridiculous when said about Apple.

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ZeroGravitas
Lots of people liked tablets, and portable music players, and small and light
laptops, and smartphones before Apple. Mostly geeks and not "lots" in the same
sense as "lots of people bought iPods/iPads" but there was still a kernel of
utility that people could clearly see the value in. IVR is a big step beyond
any of those.

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jayfuerstenberg
If Siri is as great as that video demonstrates and I don't have to type
everything in then the iPhone 4S will sell in droves!

Being able to say "wake me up at 6am" take 1-2 seconds. Thumbing through the
GUI to do this takes 10x longer.

Technology should be invisible, and I think Apple understands this.

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markbao
Think about it this way: what's more important for Apple in the long term?

To have the iPhone seen more often by people that already know about the
iPhone and have their own feelings about it?

Or, to usher in a potentially revolutionary way that changes how we use
phones, from tapping to dictating? That's something that was, in practice,
sci-fi not to too long ago, then it was first implemented well by Google, and
now expanded upon with Siri.

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kjetil
So basically, Apple should stick with making pretty pictures and stop all this
needless user interface innovation?

I guess we'll see whether Siri is successful or not, but I think you should at
least appluad Aplle for (again) raising the bar.

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philwelch
It's always disappointing when people miss the distinction between a company
that makes well-designed products and a fashion company.

~~~
lian
It's always disappointing when people think that a fashion company is mutually
exclusive with a company that makes well-designed products.

~~~
philwelch
I'm sure some fashion companies do make well-designed products. But a defining
aspect of fashion is that it's fleeting--certain things go in and out of
fashion. When a company has been making products that all basically resemble
rounded rectangles for almost a decade, with each year's release almost
indistinguishable from the last, it's pretty obviously a matter of design and
not fashion.

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bteitelb
Having received some stiff but fair criticism here for this post, I’ve updated
it to clarify and summarize a few points:

1\. Apple is not a fashion company. Yet the value of their brand is clearly
not just about utility. Apple’s products have been so good, so sexy, so
“magical” (thank you Apple marketing), that they inspire feelings of religious
ecstasy and fetishistic adoration in their users. This has real value for
Apple and they should be highly protective of this phenomenal good will. But,
now we are supposed to believe that the tactile titillation we get from
fondling EVE in our palms, is to be replaced by the experience of shouting at
an IVR? Forgive my skepticism.

2\. By “Siri is awesome”, I meant that what we saw yesterday from Apple was
awesome. But, it feels like Apple is over-promising. I have used the old Siri
off and on for the last year on my iPhone. It’s cute, but is far from
“magical”. To match the speed, reliability, and ease-of-use of the other
features on the iPhone (and to avoid tarnishing the brand), Apple would have
had to improve dramatically upon the previous Siri.

3\. There are certain visionary product ideas that have been around for
decades and have been repeatedly tried, and yet somehow are never quite good
enough for mass adoption. Videoconferencing is one (despite several attempts
by Apple). A voice-controlled AI-backed personal assistant is another.

4\. If Siri fails (which I think is likely), Apple retreats and moves on. If
it is wildly successful, it is disruptive. Mobile devices start to disappear
and fade into an invisible ubiquitous computing environment that we talk to.
Very cool. But can Apple sustain an advantage in this world? AI, IVRs, natural
language processing, search--these are not areas where Apple has a lot of
experience, talent, or any kind of lead.

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gnaffle
I guess they should ship handsets without bluetooth or headphone sockets as
well in order to make the iPhone more "visible". Or maybe the rumours are true
that the people at Apple are actually at work building the phone they'd like
to use themselves?

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jlao
Apple's goal has never been to make jewelry. Apple's goal is to make products
that they themselves want to use.

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johnbatch
I love the Apple shows their commitment to the blind at the end of the Siri
Video[1], with some Ray Charles playing in the background.
[1]<http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/siri.html#video-siri>

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lian
Things that make me feel like I'm taking crazy pills: how surprised people are
that there's a future beyond screen interfaces.

Aren't things posted to Hacker News supposed to be by people who understand
the utility of disruption? And the value of leading/controlling it?

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tobylane
Voice UI lets you keep your phone in your pocket? Buy some jeans, yours must
have so many holes in it. The only fashion thing that will come out of this is
a 'cool' way to talk to the phone without the speaker to your ear.

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reirob
For those who have no quicktime on their machine:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEqpfaRaWxU>

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chaostheory
Bad title. It should be renamed: Siri is awesome, but not for iPhone.

I tend to agree more with the Forbes article. It opens new opportunities for
Apple.

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bteitelb
You're right. That would have been a better title.

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Turing_Machine
Stopped reading at the first use of the term "fan boy".

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drivebyacct2
His third point is expressed so well that it doesn't get downvoted here.

