IPHONE INVASION

Google takes on Siri on her own turf.

It’s still no Android, but Apple Inc.’ s iPhone is sure beginning to act like one.

In what is the latest salvo in a trillion-dollar battle for mobile supremacy, Google Inc. is bringing a core part of its Android operating system — a feature called Google Now — to Apple’s iOS ecosystem.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant is using its biggest consumer electronics competitor — and, perhaps, the highest stakes rivalry in the world of business — as a gateway, to its own devices, apps and services.

It is just another example of how Google’s sprawling, platform-agnostic approach is helping the company gain ground beyond its Android-branded devices, a strategy eschewed by Apple and its typically closed-system, protec- tionist development of iOS.

“For Google, consumer electronics is a means to an end,” said Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser.

Google Now is one of many Google services now available as a downloadable app for competing iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices, alongside GMail, Maps and the web browser Chrome.

According to a survey of 16,000 smartphone owners conducted by the Yankee Group over the past 12 months, 6% of iPhone users are expecting to switch to an Android phone during the next six months.

The introduction of Google Now is perhaps Google’s highest-profile incursion yet into Apple’s mobile hardware family, taking a feature arguably inspired by personal assistant Siri, and porting it back to the iPhone maker’s own devices.

Like Apple’s Siri, Google Now can answer common queries posed via voice, but also using photos and text.

What sets the service apart is a set of intelligent cards that suggest contextual information — such as transit directions to an upcoming calendar appointment based on the user’s current location, or the status of a delayed flight — before a user even thinks to ask.

It is the first time Google Now has been made available on smartphones and tablets that aren’t running on the latest version of Google’s Android OS.

And while it’s unlikely Google can entirely upstage Apple’s own personal assistant, which is baked into the core of the company’s mobile devices, it does give iPhone and iPad users yet another glimpse at Google’s impressive mobile wares.

In December, Google won over millions of iPhone users when it released a mapping application to replace the navigation system that Apple dumped when it redesigned iOS last fall — an update full of bugs and glitches that fuelled demand for Google to develop a newer, even better option.

And after years of upholding an App Store rule that prevented the development of applications too similar to those included with Apple’s mobile OS, the company loosened off last year, paving the way for a mobile version of Google’s desktop web browser Chrome, and a standalone GMail app.

The more people that use services such as Google Now, the better they become, Baris Gultekin, Google Now’s director of product management, told The Associated Press, calling it a “virtuous cycle.”

But in bringing an increasing number of Google products and services to competing platforms, it also presents a way to bring more traffic to Google services, creating more opportunities for the company to sell ads — the main source of Google’s revenue.

“Apple has been in the business of selling stuff to people. And Google has been in the business of advertising,” Mr. Wieser said.

“And you can’t protect your cash cow unless you’re able to achieve the broadest reach.”