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'I'm Not Sure I Understand' -- How Apple's Siri Lost Her Mojo (wsj.com)
Apple has struggled to make Siri as smart as Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa because of disagreements among its staff and its decisions to limit how long it stores user data, former Apple employees told The Wall Street Journal. The company unveiled a new version of Siri during its WWDC keynote address on Monday but failed to show the world how it's much better than competing products from Google and Amazon (alternative source). There are a few areas where blame can be placed. The Journal said Apple keeps data for only six months while Google and Amazon continue to hold on to it, learning more and more about specific users as they continue to use the personal assistants. From a report: Some former executives, close observers and even devoted customers say Apple's innovative power appears to be waning, stymied by a lack of urgency and difficulty bringing ideas to fruition. In nearly six years under Chief Executive Tim Cook, Apple's stock has soared but the company has not delivered a breakthrough product on par with the string of hits under late founder Steve Jobs, which included the iPod, iPhone and iPad. "Siri is a textbook of leading on something in tech and then losing an edge despite having all the money and the talent and sitting in Silicon Valley," said Holger Mueller, a principal analyst Constellation Research, a technology research and advisory firm.
I had Siri-enabled iPhones for several years but never used the feature. Probably because I'm a visual person and prefer text over speech. Having used Amazon Echo at a friend's place, I have no desire get that or an Apple HomePod.
Wiping user data after six months is a landmark for the industry!
When Apple lost Jobs in the '90s it almost failed. Only his return in 1997 saved Apple from the tech company trash heap. Every new innovation Apple ever pushed to success was championed by Jobs. Note I said championed, not developed. Jobs was an idea man. The only ideas Cook has are socio-political. It's dead, it just hasn't caught on yet. Eventually Apple will sell off its existing tech to try to exist a little longer. The days of its introducing new tech world changing innovation are gone.
"Siwi, wecommend a westauwant."
"I do not understand 'wecommend a westauwant.'"
"See? Total cwap!"
"Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
In the past, Siri was pretty much equivalent to a speech-recognition interface to the Google search box. That, plus "hey Siri, set a timer for 35 minutes" on laundry day was about all I could get Siri to usefully do.
Still, yesterday she managed to handle this conversation in a useful manner:
Me: Hey Siri, what time does the nearest post office open tomorrow morning?
Siri: Do you mean this post office? (Show map with the nearest post office to my location indicated)
Me: Yes, that one.
Siri: The post office at (that address) is open from 9 am to 5 pm tomorrow
Me: Can you show me that address again on the map? (since the map was no longer being displayed, and I wanted to review it)
Sir: Here it is (shows map again)
Maybe Alexa and Cortana are light-years beyond this by now (I don't know, I've never used them), but I thought the above showed some progress on Siri's part -- in particular, Siri is starting to keep the context of the conversation in mind when interpreting follow-on requests, rather than treating each request as an independent/stand-alone query.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
The summary says Apple failed to show its products were superior to its competitors. Two sentences later, it says Apple's users data is only retained for 6 months, unlike its competitors which retain it for longer. Does it not realize that answers the question conclusively about which is superior?
Your ad here. Ask me how!
The issue isn't duration of data retention. It's who controls the data retention. Yes Google can potentially keep your voice search data for longer, but they let you review and delete it if you want. Amazon also lets you erase Alexa's recordings if you want.
Apple lets you erase your search history, but it's unclear if that also deletes the audio recordings they have of you.
Google and Amazon = YOU decide
Apple = They decide for you what's best
Look at how Steve and Cook handled mobileme and maps. They sucked at launch and they both took the blame. However Steve became more hands on, while Cook just told his team to fix it. Steve seemed more willing to throw something out and start over if it wasn't going the correct way. Cook seems to use profit to drive development. I think it comes down to this: Steve thought he was an artist that had to manage science people, while Cook thinks he's a businessman who needs to manage artists.
Look at these two statements:
"Apple has struggled to make Siri as smart as Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa because of disagreements among its staff and its decisions to limit how long it stores user data, former Apple employees told The Wall Street Journal.'
Ok fine. Now I would personally suspect that if six months isn't enough, then they don't use it much anyway, and I suspect the database will be poor in any event. But, now we come to the conclusion...
"The company unveiled a new version of Siri during its WWDC keynote address on Monday but failed to show the world how it's much better than competing products"
Much better? Why does it have to be "much" better? Isn't "any" better worthwhile? And isn't "any better than before" also an improvement?
"Some former executives, close observers and even devoted customers say Apple's innovative power appears to be waning"
And what does this have to do with how long Siri keeps data? If they are trying to conflate one with the other, fail.
I've never understood the fascination with talking to your electronic devices. I've used Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa - none seem to work really well.
I suspect the designers of these systems never had to use them in a noisy car or in a house that had children living in it. Trying to get any of these systems to do what you want in these environments is difficult.
Voice activated assistants are just like the 3D TV in my house - an interesting toy that gets used a few times and then is forgotten.
Assuming this story is accurate (and it is probably overstating the entire thing), it is still inconsequential. People do not buy iPhones because of Siri. Siri not performing as well as (although in some specific cases it probably does perform better than) some other phone ecosystem's digital assistant is not going to cause people to switch from iPhone to that other platform. Apple knows this, and they are not particularly concerned about getting into a slugfest over it. Apple's style is to behave as if they make the only device of that type in the world, and they will not even acknowledge any competition exists (except in defending their patents). Siri only has to work well enough to do the basic things, and Apple will throw in a small enhancement on occasion and act like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, and their customers will be perfectly content.
Better known as 318230.
Siri is useful in the car when you want to do simple things: send a text message, play music (you can name), answer simple questions or set reminders/calendar dates.
Honestly it screws up even simple stuff most of the time. It cannot handle my wife's name which isn't anything exotic. I don't speak with a weird accent either - standard midwest bland. I find Siri to be frustratingly unreliable and routinely takes more time to use (and correct) than simply typing it in. I do use it here and there but not commonly and never in public. I don't like speaking to my phone out loud in public mostly for privacy reasons. It is terrible at dictation in my experience especially if there is any context involved.
Siri kind of reminds me of the handwriting recognition software on the Newton from back in the day. Neat but not really very useful and fails to work far too often.