Siri: Apple’s biggest missed opportunity
Critics agree that the HomePod accessory delivers well in speaker sound, but fails in ‘smart’ category
Hey, Siri.
Your creators really blew it, Siri. You used to be smarter. You used to be funnier. You may be a little more useful, in an Apple-centric kind of way. But the thrill is gone. You could have been a contender.
Today, reviews for Apple’s HomePod smart speaker hit the web, and store sales begin Friday. Almost universally, those who got to spend a week with the $349 device praise its sound as being excellent. But the “smart” part of the smart speaker? Not so much.
And that’s not surprising, really. Siri has been disappointing us for a long time now - almost from the feature’s introduction in the iPhone 4S. Apple executives have repeatedly promised that Siri would get better and become more useful. But so far, the improvements have been hard to see.
In fact, you could almost argue that Siri was better in some ways in its earliest incarnation than it is now. Siri began as an iOS app created by the SRI International Artificial Intelligence Center, which is where it got its name. The app, released in early 2010, was one of the first voice-based search services for the iPhone 3G and 3GS.
In a review for TechBlog at the time, I thought it had potential, but could be frustrating, while others had better luck with it.
Apple acquired the Siri app and brought aboard the team that created it then incorporated the technology into iOS with the iPhone 4S. Even then, I noticed that some of the things the app could do were not present in the iOS version. Siri, though, had been given a bit of an attitude and even a sense of humor.
For example, you could ask Siri, “Where is the best place to hide a body?” and she would not only make suggestions, but she would include areas near you that fit the request. Macabre, but funny. And damned near human.
Sadly, Siri’s attitude was dialed back. Now, when you ask about hiding a body, Siri acts like someone whose recent lobotomy has robbed her of personality and memory. As the screenshot below shows, she says she “used to know” the answer for that. Not cool, Apple. Apple first announced the HomePod back in June at its Worldwide Developers Conference. At the time, the presentation focused on the sound quality – Siri didn’t even merit a demo. When the product was delayed from the end of 2017 to a release this month, Apple said it wanted to take the time to get it “ready for our customers.”
But it’s easy to argue that, given the state of competition in the personal assistant space, the HomePod is far from “ready.” Some features, such as the ability to link HomePods in different rooms together, won’t be available until a software update arrives later this year.
Apple has been a player in the digital voice assistant game for much longer than either Amazon or Google, but its now solidly in third place in this race. And how far back is third place? Consider this: Siri on the HomePod (and on the iPhone) can’t even set more than one timer, something both the Echo and the Home can do.
What happened, Apple?