“Since the iPhone 4S’s launch in early October, I’ve run into an increasing number of Siri users who are disenchanted with Apple’s voice-controlled ‘intelligent assistant’ that’s exclusive to its handset,” Dwight Silverman writes for The Houston Chronicle. “Their complaints – that it’s inconsistent in its performance and hampered by network outages – mirrors to some extent the experience I had on launch day.”
“Of course, the reason any technology company releases a beta is to watch ‘real’ users hammer on it. In doing so, developers can get a feel for how folks use a product. This gives them a chance to find and fix bugs, fine-tune the interface and, perhaps most importantly, see what users really expect of the product,” Silverman writes. “In this way, real-world usage drives future improvements.”
“Apple seldom does this. Public beta-testing amounts to a kind of giant focus group, which is the very antithesis of Apple’s developmental mindset,” Silverman writes. “Still, a product like Siri is going to a natural exception to that approach. More usage data for a voice-recognition-based product will improve it far more quickly than if it remained hidden in the lab.”
Silverman writes, “I think Siri serves two purposes for Apple. It gives the company the chance to hone what could be a hugely disruptive new product – an Apple TV – and it gives the iPhone 4S a real reason to live… The risk Apple runs by doing this, of course, is that Siri’s ‘rough edges’ taint the product to the point that it’s hard to market it as something magical when Apple TV finally hits, supposedly late next year. All it takes is for Siri to become the butt of late-night talk show hosts’ jokes, and suddenly Siri is the new Newton.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Silverman is overstating Siri beta’s issues along with their “risk” to Apple. Siri is amazing technology already – even in beta form. Siri alone has already sold millions of iPhone 4S units and will sell untold millions more Apple products in the future.