No Siri On iPhone 5 — Is the iPhone 4S Apple’s Guinea Pig?
Posted by Michael Nace on Tuesday Nov 1, 2011 Under iPhone 4S News, iPhone 5 OpinionSiri has quickly become the defining feature on the iPhone 4S. But a new article suggests that the iPhone 5 could feature a next-generation assistant that will replace Siri. Is the iPhone 4S looking more and more like a testing ground for future Apple mobile technologies?
If you’re loving Siri on your iPhone 4S, it might be both the first and last iPhone iteration to feature it. A new report from CP suggests that Apple may intend to replace Siri as soon as 2012 on the iPhone 5: ”The next Apple iPhone is expected to receive a complete revamp, with updates to both its software and external chassis. Industry experts speculate that this could also mean an update for the artificial intelligence system, Siri. . . Apple has stated that the program is meant to be exclusive to the 4S.”
That last statement is particularly crypic: when Apple says that iPhone 4S is the “most ordinary means” for running Siri, it is clear that they want to ensure that users do not exploit the ability to port Siri functionality onto the iPhone 4. Because, let’s face it: Siri is really the defining feature that makes the iPhone 4S different from the iPhone 4. While the A5 processor is indeed fast, both iPhones can run iOS 5, and both look essentially the same. It takes Siri to really sell the iPhone 4S, and so Apple is making sure to brand Siri as a proprietary component of the 4S.
But CP is also inferring that Siri’s primary purpose is to sell the 4S, and that by the time the iPhone 5 comes along, there will be a bigger, better assistant-like technology that will quickly replace Siri: “Experts suggest that if Siri is an iPhone 4S exclusive, that Apple may have more plans for the virtual personal assistant, for future generations of iPhones.”
Given the fact that the iPhone 5 is expected to sport a brand-new form factor, larger screen, the A6 chip, and even possibly an iOS 6 operating system, it isn’t impossible to imagine that even Siri could get an upgrade. We’ve already written about the prospect of Siri getting smarter and more interactive in the future, since it seems to work much like a search engine algorithm. But the idea of seeing Siri come and go on just the iPhone 4S begin to raise the specter of Apple’s newest iPhone iteration being a kind of “guinea pig,” testing the market for Siri-like features and the performance of the iOS 5 operating system.
This isn’t to say that the 4S experience has been disappointing for everyone: new iPhone users and those upgrading from the iPhone 3G and 3Gs are enjoying the speed, performance, and novelty of what the new iPhone has to offer. But if the speculation turns out to be true and the iPhone 5 will make its debut as early as the 2012 WWDC, the iPhone 4S could turn out to be a perceived rest stop on the way towards a serious overhaul for the iPhone franchise.
By Michael Nace
Michael Nace is the Publisher of the iPhone 5 News Blog and iPhone 6 News Blog. He has published articles about the iPhone since 2010.
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November 1st, 2011 at 2:42 pm
I’m not sure if I like the idea of a ‘Personal Assistant’ having access to all my phones data and having the possibility of relaying all my info to a remote server! On the face of it it may sound ‘cool’ but are we just giving large companies masses of data for them to crunch through so they can track trends?
This is where Malware started off and at this early stage in Siri’s career I can’t see much difference.
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November 1st, 2011 at 3:35 pm
If anything, just turn Siri off. I know I won’t be using it that much. I’m in a lot of public environments and I don’t really feel like yelling at my phone to text my girl friend *insert sappy phrase here*. I mean, if anything, I could use it in the car most definitely! But other than that I’ll just turn it off. I’m sure Apple will find a way to encrypt everything just like they did with iMessage … hopefully.
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November 1st, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Siri is useful for doing things while you’re driving, but they’ve got to improve two things. Firstly, it’s recognition rate goes to *&$# when there is background noise (such as in a car). Secondly, Siri does not follow a conversation contextually – even though it’s advertised as such. “Ring Nick” gets Siri to appropriately respond with three choices (Nick Smith, Mick Jones or Nick Johnson). When I respond with “Nick Johnson”, it starts ringing Sarah Brown or something else totally unrelated to what I said – at this point, the hands free safe driving option goes out the window as I have to pick up the phone, look at it and try and hit the disconnect button (or try and dream up a reason for ringing Sarah).
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November 1st, 2011 at 6:27 pm
I agree with Richard. My last response was labled “still working relationship with Siri” and at this point if i cannot get ahead of battery life 4s is going back. I toughed it out this far w/ my 3gs and might just be willing to continue. Siri sure is NOT worth it in my book.
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November 1st, 2011 at 7:06 pm
I don’t know “testing” a feature that is the main selling point on an iPhone doesn’t seem apple like. They wouldn’t add siri and take it out the next year if they weren’t sure it was going to go over well. maybe it was a test, even if it was and it was a flop they would still keep it on the phone like the old voice recognition. I personally like siri (even though i didn’t buy the 4S for it) a lot and cannot wait to see what future updates bring and see no point in apple pulling the plug on it. I can see siri in the near future as a more intelligent assistant that can do what we can do on our phones ourselves.
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November 1st, 2011 at 11:33 pm
Dear Michael,
Where is everyone? I’ve been here since the start of the blog and have seen the hype of the iPhone 5 at it’s acme, but now that it’s past due, is the fire of the craze died down to cool embers? Or has the “disappointment” of the 4s set in? Frequent posters like andres and core2 are almost no where to be seen. I guess the blog will again recieve more hype in time for the wwdc. Even throughout the day I come to the site by force of habit. I miss the good ol’ times:)
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November 2nd, 2011 at 12:02 am
LoneWolf, it is indeed quiet here. I pop in occasionally, but was getting manic in visiting several times a day until my 4s arrived. It will be interesting to see how useful Siri becomes once the novely wears off. It is really handy for simple tasks like “Set an alarm for 7:30″ – faster than opening up the ap, scrolling through for an appointment at the right time, clicking “edit” then changing the time. Making appointments via Siri also seems to be quite efficient. I’m keen to know what it will be like when the non-Beta (what’s the technical term for that?) version is released.
iCloud seems like a major disappointment. I’ve turned it off for iCal and may well just turn it totally off – I’m not seeing any benefit there and it did cause some grief to a system that was working just fine.
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November 2nd, 2011 at 4:24 am
@Richard, I refuse to buy the 4S just because of Siri. The 4S is a great phone and very fast but considering I have the iPhone 4 I just told myself to wait for the 5. I think it’ll be worth it in the long run. Anyways, I’d like to comment on your statement about iCloud. I have backed up to it but decided to just turn it off. It duplicated everything I backed up putting “two” of everything onto my phone eating up all of my on board storage. I believe in something one of my bosses told me when I was interning: “Never use the first of anything”. Siri is just the beta version and it’s the first version just as iCloud is its first version as well. Always wait for the company to work out the bugs and wait for the second version. Hopefully this philosophy of mine holds true … I mean naturally the bugs will be worked out so in the long run things will get progressively better.
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November 2nd, 2011 at 7:01 am
@LoneWolf i was thinking the same thing!
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November 2nd, 2011 at 4:19 pm
i know this is a little off topic but if i ordered my 4S on oct. 26th, how long would it take to process. and also how much demand is there left for the phone. i ordered it on the online store so i hope it ships this week
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November 2nd, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Richard,
EXACTLY! That is one thing I liked about MS Voice Command. It confirmed what it thought it heard, and then you could say, “yes” or “no”. The “I know I’m right” has me dialing my brother’s ex-wife (Anya) instead of my wife (Amy). While it’s almost funny (hilarious if you’re watching me scramble to hang up my phone while changing lanes…) but not so much when I’m the guy saying “oh, I’m sorry… didn’t mean to dial you, and sorry for what I said to you in that e-mail… How’s my nephew doing?”
I mean, seriously, use some freaking intelligence, Apple. I call my wife 2132 times for every time I call my brother’s ex. Uses that cool processor to think, “hey, maybe he wants to call Amy and not Anya”
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November 3rd, 2011 at 8:20 pm
I like Siri, but she definitely is beta! She confuses my contacts and has me scrambling also. But fun to mess with and definitely useful for texts and reminders. I wish she would speak the reminders but I guess that could be awkward. I have a recent Bluetooth and she has trouble with it, which of course I need in the car, so that’s a problem. My biggest concern is that if I have no network, like driving in a 3G dead zone, I cannot voice dial – why not have it revert to the old voice recognition then? As for the iCloud, I like photo stream, but that’s it. I was told that it takes about 1 hour per 16gb to backup to iCloud on a strong network connection – ouch! And after syncing my contacts and such to iCloud, I find no way to clear it from the iCloud – any ideas?
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