October 5th, 2011
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| Image source: Apple.com |
Siri is the “humble personal assistant” as “she” identifies herself, capable of voice-to-text and text-to-voice (and generally voice command), along with more complex tasks such as scheduling meetings and taking care of your correspondence, all by simple verbal request.
But this new iPhone, with a feature as awesome as it could be, was met with a not so unanimous reception. In fact, many found that what Apple did by keeping the same design of its previous model, rather than revolutionizing it, was quite disappointing, especially after almost 6 months of rumors that never calmed, and kept suggesting a thinner, wider (4 inch screen) form factor along with some other minor cosmetic changes. Such hype was clearly not met by what Apple delivered in that respect, which brings the question: How come all of these rumors, so strong as they were, didn’t make it to the final product, especially with a 3 months delay over the usual announcement period, namely the WWDC event in June? And where the hell was that “one more thing”? This very last question has the answer.
Earlier during the summer, Steve Jobs, co-founder and then CEO of Apple, stepped down from his position, assuming instead the role of Chairman and President. His second-in-command and previously acting CEO for three short periods, Tim Cook, took his place. Cook had the legacy of Jobs to carry, and that is no small weight. To maintain the post-Jobs Apple, and particularly its soaring shares, Cook had to prove he was able to deliver just as Jobs did. People had expectations.
Now that is a dilemma, for no matter how good of a design the new iPhone was going to be, it would be compared to that dictated-by-Jobs-up-to-the-tiniest-detail of the iPhone 4; it was a lose-lose situation. Instead, it was wiser to use that same design Jobs conceived, and rather innovate at the software level, to prove that Cook is indeed worthy of being a CEO of Apple, and an heir to Jobs. Siri made that possible.
Now, it is safe to assume that starting with the next iPhone, and with other products (Macs) set to be announced/upgraded in the meantime, Cook, having “fixed his feet to the ground” and being less and less pressed to prove his capabilities, could start deviating from the “Jobs vision” and instead implement his own, which would be translated in a new design, both on the software and hardware levels. How far this deviation would be remains to be seen, especially that Jobs was involved in some long-term projects too, and thus his footprint would still be present to a reasonable extent.
October is not done yet with surprises, especially that Android “Ice-Cream Sandwich”, Google’s next Nexus phone and Nokia’s new Widows Phone “Mango” handsets are on the verge of being announced. One thing I know for sure though: Siri, I wanna marry you!