“It’s now been a couple of weeks since Siri debuted as part of Apple’s iPhone 4S,” Eric Jackson writes for Forbes. “The response from most people has been very positive.”
“However, in my opinion, Siri is tremendously under-valued. People see it as it is today, which is already the best voice recognition application in history,” Jackson writes. “But people (including high-priced sell-side Wall Street analysts) fail to see where the puck is going for Siri. Siri will be vastly more improved in as little as 2 years from now. And the boundless number of applications using Siri will explode.”
Jackson writes, “In the way that the January 2007 launch of iPhone set a ripple in the ocean that would eventually overtake Research In Motion in an all-out tsunami, I believe Siri’s launch this month spells a future crippling of Google’s business.”
Here’s why:
1. Siri works
2. Siri has personality
3. Siri is very difficult to copy
4. Siri helps own the customer experience for Apple
5. Siri will vastly improve in the next 2 years based on all the data it’s amassing
6. When Siri opens up its API to 3rd party developers, this thing’s growth and adoption will go ballistic
Jackson writes, “Ultimately, Siri is intended to be a Google killer. It won’t happen overnight. Research in Motion didn’t collapse after the iPhone was released in January 2007. In fact, RIM hit all-time highs 7 months after iPhone’s introduction. It’s only now — 4.5 years after its introduction — that we see how iPhone caused RIM’s slow-motion car crash. It might take that long for Siri to inflict that much harm to Google and Google has lots of cash to throw at the problem. But we might be watching the beginning of the end of Google, thanks to innocuous introduction of Siri in the 4S.”
Much more in the full article, including explanations of each of the six points above, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Siri: Apple’s secret weapon in war with Google – October 26, 2011
Apple’s Siri makes Google and Microsoft look foolish; begins to cast shadow over the industry – October 25, 2011
Morgenthaler says Apple’s iPhone 4S Siri is ‘seriously underrated’ (with video) – October 21, 2011
Nervous Google and Microsoft bad-mouth Apple’s revolutionary Siri – October 21, 2011
Apple debuts first iPhone 4S Siri television ad (with video) – October 21, 2011
Android chief not interested in turning Android devices into personal assistants – October 19, 2011
iPhone 4S’s snide, sassy, amazing Siri has plenty to say – October 18, 2011
Ars Technica reviews Apple iPhone 4S: A Siri-ously slick, speedy smartphone – October 18, 2011
Bajarin: Apple’s iPhone 4S with Siri launch a pivotal moment in tech, but many missed its significance – October 17, 2011
Apple gave Siri AI personal assistant its edge – October 16, 2011
PC Magazine reviews Apple iOS 5: The best phone and tablet OS, Editors’ Choice – October 15, 2011
PC Magazine reviews Apple iPhone 4S: Editors’ Choice – October 15, 2011
Wired reviews Apple iPhone 4S: The ‘S’ stands for Siri, a life-changer, the reason people should buy this phone – October 12, 2011
USA Today’s Baig reviews iPhone 4S: Apple takes world’s finest smartphone to even loftier heights – October 12, 2011
WSJ’s Walt Mossberg reviews Apple iPhone 4S: Siri artificial-intelligence has to be tried to be believed – October 12, 2011
NY Times’ Pogue reviews Apple iPhone 4S: Conceals sheer, mind-blowing magic – October 12, 2011
“We might be watching the beginning of the end of Google, thanks to innocuous introduction of Siri in the 4S”
One can only hope…
Nah, if thier search income craters, they’ll just skim along on their OS licensing fees…oh, wait.
Obviously (and I’ve not heard anyone pick up on this yet), this is the major product transition that Apple was referring to months ago in their shareholder brief. Siri will be a major transition that affects Apple’s entire product line
So perhaps the North Carolina facility isn’t so much about iCloud as it is about Siri and building databases?
i dont listen to analysts when it comes to Apple so i can’t put much weight on this guy’s piece either.
really interested too see where Apple takes Siri.
Good points expressed in the article. I wince whenever I read that “new product X is a ____ killer!” Don’t get me wrong: Apple Siri is definitely a nuclear torpedo aimed at Google’s battleship.
Think about it: Google is a search engine that presents the user with links to search further. On the other hand, Siri is an ANSWER engine, delivering answers to the user’s question much more frequently than it is forced to respond with links only. It means that Google at present can only offer users less productivity and more the user has to do. The instantaneous convenience of Siri means that if consumers use Siri first, Google gets cut out of advertising revenues, which fuels everything the company does. THAT is the threat.
My understanding is that both Google and Microsoft have been working on Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions for many years, and to their credit, both companies are staffed with a lot of very smart Ph.Ds.
The trash talk we heard from Andy Rubin and Steve Ballmer is meant to mask the huge sucking sound that were emitted from Mountain View and Redmond the day Siri launched. No doubt about it: there was much soiling of trousers and hurled chairs in the last week. At the same time, I’m sure there is a Manhattan Project level urgency at both companies to counter Siri. Within two years, look for both companies to respond with AI solutions of their own.
The bigger thing I see is a fundamental shift in how billions of people worldwide will search for answers. In one swift and brilliant move, Apple has leaped into the middle of the search business in a novel way that completely upsets the business model of Google and Microsoft Bing. The way that Siri is structured, almost any Internet connected Apple consumer product can be a powerful thin client for Siri queries and commands. Whether Apple makes a TV or not – and adds Siri power to the Apple TV box as we know it – television and other consumer devices to come from Apple will be given intelligence and power we never imagined. And look for Siri to come to the Mac as well.
Just be patient. Siri will depend on building out more data centers like the new facility in Maiden, NC to handle the explosion in Siri commands, queries and requests. And Siri is still learning. Being AI based, it learns, even from its mistakes. A rule-based system like the current one used in Android phones cannot. And, as the article suggested, as Apple contracts with its developers and new data suppliers, the power of Siri will grow exponentially.
I am deeply sorry that we lost the genius of Steve Jobs. But he left us knowing what will be. And that future will be incredible.
I very much enjoy the possibility of f**k google big time. The more you think, the more damned google is going to be. If google can’t come up Siri copycat, it is dead. But even if google copies Siri big time with a huge success, it is doomed. With the answers coming right the way after you ask, where and when can you insert ads into? If you force ads on users, they will quit you instantly. Either way, the days search seduced ads business model is over. The day Google die, we shall celebrate.
I want targeted ads to pay for services and news that I want on my phone. Without these properly placed ads, we will end up paying for everything we get on our phones and we will stop using these great features.
Our economy depends on companies being able to sell their products and services. How do you imagine they will inform us about what they can do for us or make for us?
Just because YOU want sucky ads all over everything you then assume everyone else has to have them. News flash, buddy; so long as YOU can choose what sort of search then that’s YOUR choice. YOUR choice should not be the default for everyone else. I am so looking forward to updating my phone next year, by which time Siri should be almost unrecognisable compared to the beta we have today. It’s all very exciting.
Targeted ads is **one** business model. It’s not the only one out there.
I would note that AAPL’s iPhone’s market play is providing a highly desired, premium device (where the price is held down in part by AAPL’s superior sourcing skills gives them a BOM that competitors can’t match) such that the telcos have surrendered much of the branding and customer relationship control to AAPL.
Of course, lack of promotional crapware and targeted ads on the Mac and iPhone desktops might be just the thing holding back AAPL’s stock price (lame sarcastic joke, I know…)
Isn’t it better to choose and pay for the services you want, rather than letting companies add to the price of everything you buy to cover their advertising budget, and then choose which things they want to subsidize for you?
Not necessarily. As long as the search results are honest, I’m cool.
Apple is one of the greediest companies on earth. Everything they do is a tool to funnel our money into their pockets. I’m ok with that as long as they keep the money suckers identifiable. Unless I get the idea that Siri is trying to manipulate me, I’m good. The minute I get a result that seems to be a ‘paid commercial announcement,’ I’m outta there.
Brilliant!!
So it turns out that THIS is Steve Jobs going “thermonuclear” on Google after the android affair. Siri trumps search.
Brian = Brain
If you’re not a professional analyst, you should be. You beat the sh1t out of the majority of them.
I agree completely.
In addition, I remember an article/blog recently that claimed that Apps have to die – basically due to the fragmentation of the user experience based on type of information required. Siri, not the browser, will become the front-end to information that unifies the user experience while taking over all the heavy-lifting of the search from the user.
Google Ads – bye-bye.
This is not a hope … It is a reality that cannot be averted. The power of Siri has not been appreciated fully by anyone except the few technophobes that get it, Apple (Steve Jobs),a few analysts like this one, people using it on the 4s, Google and Microsoft… And the last two are quaking in their boots because they cannot beg, borrow or steal a defense against this game changer…. Let alone innovate their way out.
The question is will Siri’s future development happen rapidly or through the long slog of single yearly upgrades like all things Apple? If it’s the latter, Google can easily leapfrog the technology with a version of their own for Android which will see a rapid pace of development that runs laps around Apple between “media events.”
Google could do it but this will only further fragment the Android marketplace. Will the Android handset makers jump on this new feature without requiring their customers to invest in new hardware?
Let’s suppose Google will leapfrog and have a huge success. Now where, when, how do Google going to insert ads link? Between the answers of Siri? Users will throw his Android device away instantly. If Google can’t insert ads like search, where does its cash come from? Obama printing money?
Siri gets better by the day, not through yearly updates. Once developers gain access Siri will grow exponentially.
Google is a one trick pony when it comes to income.
Bloodbath.
What, like the regular and frequent updates to Android that every Android handset gets from Google? Hello? Planet Earth calling, not sure when you’ll get this, the transmission lag is probably about the same as the lag that Android users suffer.
Not the end of Google, but maybe the irrelevance of Android.
“Ultimately, Siri is intended to be a Google killer.”
No, that is not how Apple works. Siri is primarily intended to provide an attractive, useful service to users. A side effect may be pain for Google. Even in beta, the utility and attractiveness of Siri already are spectacular. What it will do to Google is of peripheral interest.
That’s right, Apple’s business model primarily involves providing value to consumers. Corporations and even industries keep toppling in the wake of Apple’s campaign of innovation, and this may be a side effect, perhaps of peripheral interest as you say, but also of profound interest to those of us who detest too much advertising, and Google = advertising.
I don’t wish doom on Google, but…they are just a company based almost on a singular search & advertising linked function.
If they don’t successfully move beyond that, they will be severely limited.
I hope that Apple would find a way to end Google’s ads empire. Google is very strong in on-line advertising. For every site you visit there would dozens of Google’s ads peppered about the page. Many a times these ads are pesky and distracting. And it encourages page-clicking baits from unethical operators. Is this the only model for online advertising and will Google rule the advertising kingdom forever? I don’t think so, if one is willing to think outside of the box.
There is one model that Apple should explore. Let’s examine the Yellow Pages model of advertising. Apple can have a default Yellow-Page icon on every partner’s site that, when clicked by a reader, will lead to a portal that indexes every types of businesses (public, private or government), classified advertising such as Jobs, Vehicles for Sale, House for Sale, etc. according to category or alphabetical order. When one clicks on an entry it will take one to another page where the particular product would be advertised in its full glory. This page could be designed by Apple with inputs from the advertiser concerned. Of course the more elaborate the page is, the pricier would be the cost to the advertiser as against a few-lines personal advertisement. Apple could design a payment mechanism to pay to partners that carry the default Yellow-Page icon on their sites based on successful transaction, and collect charges from advertisers for done deals. Apple could also charge a nominal annual fee for every listing, based on the size of real estate the advertiser would choose to have in the portal. This would be huge for information gathering.
Then tie this system to Siri or iAds that will intelligently bring direct any advertisement to a user without the pesky intrusion of a Google’s model of serving advertisement. If readers can be left in peace reading news or any other information without encountering ads on a page, it would be a boon. If readers want advertisement or further product information, they can just click the Yellow-Page icon. Apple would be credited with another industry changing innovation.
Apple can buy an existing online Yellow Page and then overhaul its user interface to tie in with Siri and iAds; alternatively, Apple can start from scratch. Apple has to cut the root of the evil Google’s money tree by outsmarting Google.
As Siri learns and connects to more databases, Siri will be the natural front end for every queries. Just watch.
What’s the heck, how could I contact Apple with this silly idea instead of bitching it out publicly to every Tom, Dick and Harry.
I hear that Apple is picking Arnold Schwarzenegger to head the Android-defeating Siri team…….
Arnie commented that the team will be in place by next year as Apple bought over Cyberdyne Systems and will use their engineers. The new team will be known as Skynet.
Siri will kill Google’s earnings model, yes, but not ads or ‘paid content’. In fact, there’s no way of being sure every answer Siri gives you is just neutral or that paid for answers are more likely than neutral ones.
When Siri finds an answer to a user’s question, does she cache it? Will there come a time where she is relying less and less on live queries to Wolfram or search engines and more on her own database? In other words, will Siri not only use the web less and less, but actually become self-aware!?!
Uh no Siri will not become self aware.
The core of Siri is a great piece of research and work in the realm of AI but there are limits to what it is capable of doing. Being aware and actually ‘thinking’ just aren’t in the cards on this round.
I hope so because then she can take over the world from the clowns that are trying to run it now
I’ve got only one little complaint about Siri. It’s probably more a thing about curiosity than a complaint. When I search for something it never gives me the things that are just down the street. Like if I search for hardware stores I get plenty, but not the Ace hardware 1.3 miles from me (and it’s been there for years). If I Google for hardware stores, Ace is at the top of the list. Ditto for all the other businesses near that intersection. It’s as though there is a 3-mile wide hole in Siri’s database.
What would happen if you asked for Ace Hardware? Perhaps Siri knows that you already know where it’s located.
S. I. R. I. = Speak Intelligently Respond Intelligently
Thanks for the retarded dig at our Commander in Chief you f$uck.
Who killed Osama? Not that inbred ignoramus biatch W! He’s still takinkg it up the a$$ from the Saudi Family that bankrolled him, and destroyed our economy. Crawl back in your troll hole.
This is where Apple’s limited share but high value impact in the market place is a massive advantage over its rivals. The data centres to run this are massive and even Apples client base will test it and limit it till it builds out. For Microsoft to try to offer something similar to its pc client base for example or Google through its entire search users and its low end numbers game with Android would be extremely difficult to handle. Its a very good reason that Apple doesnt want to play the numbers game with IOS but concentrate on good share and value form that share and providing top notch services to them.
SIRI is just a slightly more polished copy of what has already been produced. Voice commands have been on cell phones before touch screens where. I can tell my Droid “find hardware stores” and it automatically gives me an interative Google map of all hardware stores around me. Droid can do everything SIRI can, and has been able to for years, albeit in a slightly less polished manor. As a developer, I fail to see what major breakthroughs SIRI brings besides excellent voice recognition software. This is not new technology, get over yourselves.
Perhaps but Apple’s SIRI is leading to excellence in AI and that’s the change we’ll be so lucky to withness
not everyone has iphones you know… and it’s not like you can use siri while on your desktop, at least not practically. i love apple and all, but a google killer it is not