Apple: Siri Only Works On iPhone 4S, We Have No Plans To Support Older Devices

http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/09/apple-siri-only-works-on-iphone-4s-we-have-no-plans-to-support-older-devices/

by llambda • 15 years ago

43 64 15 years ago

nodata2• 15 years ago

There's no technical limitation here: Siri works with rooted phones. iirc it was also in the App Store for older devices before Apple bought the company.

microtonal• 15 years ago

As the article says, it's all about model differentiation. The 4S is a fine upgrade, but it would be far less interesting to current iPhone 4 owners if Siri wasn't a 4S exclusive.

Apple can plaster a lot of environment-blah blah on their website, but they (but also most Android vendors) are the anti-thesis of sustainability. Encouraging people to upgrade frequently, and quickly deprecating old models. E.g. my girlfriend's 3G is in a fine state hardware-wise, will probably function well for a few more years, but there are no more security updates.

(A mostly happy iPhone 4 user.)

spicyj• 15 years ago

Note that the 3G is almost 3.5 years old now and few people still use it.

nodata2• 15 years ago

Yes, that's why I wrote that "There's no technical limitation here"...

maigret2• 15 years ago

Very good comment. Why then doesn't Apple make Siri an expensive app to compensate? My iPhone4 batteries will be dead in one year anyway, so I'll have to get a new one. In the meantime, I'd like to get Siri for even 50$ or more. And on my iPad 2 also.

Apple needs to be more sustainable. That may mean increase their prices, fine, but that would be better for the environment.

xenophanes• 15 years ago

So when iPhone 5 comes out, and it has its own new features to sell itself, do you think they'll enable siri on everything they can?

oleganza• 15 years ago

Apple customers are responsible for environment at least as much as Apple or more. If you don't like how Apple treats environment, you don't buy their products. If you think it's not good for environment to upgrade every year or two, don't buy new phone. Apple's care of environment does not matter if you decide to buy another device. They can only minimize the damage customers will cause.

naner• 15 years ago

There's no technical limitation here: Siri works with rooted phones.

Works just as well? I wonder if there are subtle hardware differences (e.g. in the microphone) that make a difference.

fredoliveira• 15 years ago

I believe you were downvoted, but you are actually correct. There's no technical "limitation" here, but there's subtle things that make siri work a little better - the cpu is one, the second microphone near the headphone jack that they use to cancel environment noise is too.

Is it enough difference? Not really, no. Siri can still run perfectly fine on the iPhone 4. But they're using it to differentiate the models, and there's little we can do about it. Some people are going to be bummed, yes, but that's business.

ugh5• 15 years ago

Certainly. There is also nothing wrong with only bringing new features to new devices. I really honestly don’t understand why this is the slightest bit controversial.

antirez4• 15 years ago

I hope that tomorrow Apple will release a new operating system that is a game changer, but you'll not able to install it in your macbook air that is two months old.

But your friends with a new MBA that has an improved webcam will be able to run it. Even if the features have nothing to do with the webcam.

Then you probably will understand that there is something unfair about it.

jamesbkel• 15 years ago

It was available for older devices in the past. I had it for awhile, but since it was really was only good for searches like "where is the nearest...?" and lacked iOS integration, I don't recall using it much after the novelty factor wore off.

tmgrhm• 15 years ago

The only technical limitation I can think of is the one which exists server-side. Siri has been having troubles from time-to-time with just iPhone 4S owners polling it. Imagine if all iPhone 4 (and even 3GS) owners were trying to use it too.

antirez4• 15 years ago

Do you care about that when you use Twitter or Gmail? Instead for Apple, after paying a shitload of money, you are super interested in how hard is scaling for them?!

There is no limit to my shock at how people are mentally gamed by Apple.

tghw• 15 years ago

I have to believe that Apple has the engineering talent to scale something like this up. It's a pretty straight forward problem, and it's not like they don't have enough cash to double their server farm.

Kylekramer• 15 years ago

If you don't pay for the product, you aren't the customer. Just a more literal interpretation of the phrase with Apple.

insanecanadian• 15 years ago

I don't exactly see how this is relevant to the decision not to bring a feature to an older phone.

cjdavis• 15 years ago

The carrier paid for it. They want you to sign up for a contract extension to get the shiny new phone. They have no interest in supporting your old phone.

incandenza• 15 years ago

I do think Apple will stick to this, but on the other hand an engineer's comment on a bug report is not much to go on--they may not know Apple's real plans, and Apple could go back on its stated plans anyway.

nate• 15 years ago

What do you mean by "works"? :)

Zimahl• 15 years ago

Snark aside, I'd say that Siri doesn't seem to work at least 50% of the time.

First, it tends not to be able to connect to the network. Whether with full 3G or even over wifi a large percentage of the time you'll end up with "I'm having trouble connecting to the network" after asking your question. There shouldn't be any excuses here - paid for the phone which the service was a feature, one should be able to use it whenever they need.

Second, the speech to text is severely lacking. Sure it does a fairly good job of sentence translation but anything outside of phonetic names is just garbage. You'll get 'Red Robin' but not 'QDoba'. You'll get the last name of 'Anderson' or 'Jones' but any ethnic name (I'm of German descent - no match, I can't imagine being Indian, Korean, Hispanic, etc.) isn't going to match unless you say it phonetically.

Third, it just tends to be a glorified search widget. Other than reminders or asking about the weather you'll most likely just be prompted to search for what you are asking. And at that point you are back to the phonetic requirements to get what you are searching for.

I'm not saying Siri is bad, it has it's place, but this isn't the revolution it's hyped up to be.

CurtHagenlocher• 15 years ago

Apple sells hardware. Microsoft sells software. IBM sells services. Google and Facebook sell advertising. Amazon sells everything.

brunnsbe2• 15 years ago

Apple sells hardware and software for their hardware. Microsoft sells software and hardware (XBOX, keyboards, mice, etc). Google sells services. Facebook sells private lives.

philipmorg• 15 years ago

What services does Google sell? To me, it looks like they sell user eyeballs to advertisers.

mambodog• 15 years ago

Apple does not sell "hardware". Apple sells complete products that vertically integrate hardware, software and (more recently) services.

chrisdroukas• 15 years ago

It's been analyzed before here — their margins come from hardware.

prestia2• 15 years ago

A few points:

First, I agree with a point that others have raised regarding Siri "working" on rooted phones. Sure, it will run, but does it run well? Does it slow the phone down signficantly when in heavy use? Until we know for sure, I'm not going to get worked up about it.

Second, it is very possible that the technical limitation is server-side. Apple has a pretty spotty history with web services and limiting Siri to the iPhone 4S may just be a way to slowly scale the backend.

Third, I think it's pretty absurd to call out Apple's lack of support for old devices. The level of support still available for the 2.5-year-old iPhone 3GS is outstanding compared to other smart phones. Most people who _really_ care about having the newest tech are probably upgrading their phones every two years anyway. And, really, who can blame Apple for wanting to differentiate their products? I don't mind if that is the reason, but I would prefer an honest answer if that is the only reason.

hospadam• 15 years ago

While I tend to agree with everything - we should expect Apple to support the 3GS currently - they're still selling it! How much support will it get 6 months after it's not currently sold anymore?

teamonkey• 15 years ago

If the 3G is anything to go by, zero support. It'll be dropped like a stone.

ryanpetrich• 15 years ago

On the iPhone 3GS, it works better than Voice Controls ever did and does not noticeably affect battery or memory use. When running, it's speex encoder uses very little CPU.

Recognition on the iPhone 3GS is not as accurate due to the lack of a noise-cancelling secondary mic, but that's a component the iPhone 4 shares with the iPhone 4S.

I agree on your second two points.

JimDabell2• 15 years ago

> The level of support still available for the 2.5-year-old iPhone 3GS is outstanding

They are selling the 3GS brand new today. I don't think they deserve kudos for supporting a current product. It should go without saying.

wvenable• 15 years ago

But it doesn't -- there are many Android headsets that were obsolete when released (OS-wise) and then never updated. The situation with Android devices (at the high end) is getting better but it's too early to see what the situation will be like in 3 years.

prestia2• 15 years ago

That doesn't change the fact that people who bought a 3GS 2.5 years ago are still getting significant updates to the hardware. Really, what better way is there to support a product than continue selling it?

If you want to look at the other options out there, Android is doing a terrible job. A number of Android phones don't even ship with the most recent version of the OS and some never see updates at all. It's getting better, but it's far from great.

eavc• 15 years ago

Applogia

Apple: Siri Only Works On iPhone 4S, We Have No Plans To Support Older Devices

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