“The competitive advantages on smartphones in the future will not be in the hardware, but in the software,” Charlie Zhou writes for SeekingAlpha. “A lot of people are missing out the real game changer, Siri, and Google should be very scared about it.”
“Siri is a personal assistant app can take voice command from the users and translate the commands into tangible actions. Voice commands on all other phones, including the previous iPhones, are all very basic. They are only limited to calling someone or playing some music,” Zhou writes. “Siri totally changes everything.”
“There are two things that make Siri stand out. First, it can take complicated commands from users that range anything from sending a text message to looking for a restaurant. The app has the potential to significantly save a user’s time on these mundane tasks. Second, Siri has a personality. It talks back and has an attitude. This emotional feature is genius,” Zhou writes. “It builds a personal connection with the user, increases user loyalty to the iPhone 4S and enhances the Apple brand. The reaction to Siri reminds me people’s reaction to the iPad. Many people were disappointed with the first iPad launch presentation, but look at how well it is doing now. Apple doesn’t give us what we want; it shows us the future.”
Zhou writes, “Google makes its money from online advertising… Siri impacts Google by significantly reducing the amount of time we spend on Google’s applications… Siri’s impact on Google is limited in the short run because of its limited availability but as it becomes more popular and its abilities develop, Siri could seriously reduce how much we use Google’s services and revenue in the long run.”
Read more in the full article here.