Apple Inc beefed up its new iPhone with faster chips and bettercameras, seeking to set its handset apart from the rising tide ofGoogle Android smartphones. But the one feature that got the most"oohs" and "ahhs" from the audience at Tuesday's iPhone unveiling wasthe built-in voice-recognition technology, dubbed "Siri". Appledemonstrated a variety of scenarios in which users of the new iPhone 4Sseemed to hold a conversation with the device, managing calendarappointments, finding restaurants and inquiring about the weather.
"That was a pretty big step forward," said Forrester Researchanalyst Frank Gillett, who attended the launch at Apple headquarters."To be able to just converse with your gadget. You've got more optionsthan just poking and swiping at it with your finger." Whether suchhigh-tech wizardry is enough to make the iPhone 4S a must-have inconsumers' eyes, and set it apart from the competition, remains to beseen.
"It's not clear that Siri is sufficient to make or break apurchase decision," said John Jackson, an analyst at CCS Insight. "It'sa better mousetrap. History tells us users don't use this technology ingreat numbers." Voice recognition technology isn't new. Softwarecompanies have offered technology allowing people to do dictation, withvarying results, on their personal computers for more than a decade.Even low-tech gizmos like vehicle-GPS units made by Garmin and otherscan be voice-enabled.
Google introduced voice recognition technology to its Androidsmartphone software more than a year ago, and the company recentlyintroduced a voice-recognition capability into its flagship Web searchengine. But Gillett said Apple had taken the technology beyond merelyrecognizing spoken words. The Siri technology could take actions basedon people's words, making it closer to a true "personal assistant," hesaid.
It talks back!
During demonstrations, an Apple executive asked the phonewhether he needed a raincoat today, and the phone responded: "It surelooks like rain today." A separate video of Siri technology in action,screened during the event, depicted a jogger telling his phone to bookan appointment at noon, with the phone responding, in a robotic femalevoice, that he already had an appointment at that time. Siri willinitially be available with support for English, French and German withmore languages soon, Apple said. The company acquired Siri, the makerof the technology, early last year.
Apple's iPhone, first introduced in 2007, is the No. 1 sellingsmartphone in the world. But phones based on Google Inc's Androidoperating system, which is available for free to handset vendors suchas Motorola, HTC Corp and Samsung Electronics, have a greater combinedmarket share than Apple's iPhones.
Inside iPhone 4S is a dual-core A5 processor, designed byApple, with improved graphics capabilities for video games, as well asspecial image processing capabilities for improving photo and videoperformance. The camera got a boost to 8 megapixel resolution, up fromthe prior model's 5 megapixels. Apple also provided more details onforthcoming Internet-based "cloud" features on Tuesday. Users ofiPhones and iPad tablets will be able to store their music, photos andother data on Apple's remote servers, similar to services offered byGoogle and Amazon.com Inc.
For all the hardware improvements, Gartner analyst Van Bakersaid it was the Siri technology that will really make the iPhone 4Sstand apart. "It is very cutting-edge," he said. "They have raised thebar."
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