For many iPhone 4 early adopters who can't live without Siri but want the experience, this means either 1) waiting until mid-November and doing a "free" upgrade via ATT's 20-month allowance or 2) waiting 6 months and finally jumping ship to Verizon once the current contract expires.
Disappointed this is an "exclusive" app, but I want to live in a Star Trek world, too.
Might as well go all-in and give ATT the bird on the way out, even if just on principle.
Not true at all. I've been using Siri since June or so, on my iPhone 4. It's been on the App Store at least that long. If you are really an early adopter and really wanted this app so badly, you could have downloaded it, and could be using it right now.
...Until 10/15 after which you'll have to buy a completely new phone to continue using it. They are taking away existing functionality that has been available to users for almost 2 years and relaunching it as the primary 'exclusive' feature on new, more expensive hardware.
It's also still throwing the same error as shown in the TC post for many users, myself included.
I didn't say the original app had all the "EXACT" same functionality as what is in the iPhone 4S.
It has a lot of the same basic functionality that I have used and would continue to use on my 3GS, except that I can't because Apple turning it off on all iPhone models except for the new 4S. (It already appears to be offline for me.)
I don't disagree that the new implementation looks to be far more polished, tightly integrated, and probably just plain better than what I had.
What I object to, is them taking it away and forcing an upgrade of hardware if I still want to use the same features I already have been.
The "SAME," "EXACT" semantics are yours, not mine. I don't think I implied that either. They took an existing app away and the features are now only available on brand new hardware. That is a business and marketing decision, not a limitation of existing hardware.
Disappointed this is an "exclusive" app, but I want to live in a Star Trek world, too.
Might as well go all-in and give ATT the bird on the way out, even if just on principle.