Apple pulls Siri out of beta, service still woefully inadequate for India
Revamped Siri for iOS 7 will get a bunch of new features, most of which will not be available to Indian users.
Siri, Apple’s voice assistant for the iPhone, iPad and iPod, has finally been pushed out of beta, a tag it sported since its launch on the iPhone 4S in 2011. Earlier, the Siri page on Apple’s official site referred to the service as in ‘beta’ but sometime last week all references to Siri as being in ‘beta’ were dropped. This means that in iOS 7, along with its new UI and features, Siri will finally be a ‘final’ product.
Siri is expected to get a whole host of new features and a new look in Apple’s upcoming revamp of iOS. This includes a new set of voices (both male and female), Twitter and Facebook integration, ability to search for local addresses and restaurants and also movie showtimes. Siri can now also help users track scores of their favourite sports teams and buy movie tickets. Unfortunately, most of these features are limited to only certain countries and iPhone, iPad and iPod users in India would do well to keep their expectations in check.
Siri has been a massive disappointment for Indian users since it showed up on the iPhone 4S. The accent recognition is downright horrible and apart from the most basic of operations, Siri fails as a service here. In fact, Micromax’s homebrewn Aisha voice assistant works far better and even Google’s Voice Search on iOS is far, far better (in fact, in my personal experience I’ve seen that Google Voice Search works better on the iPhone 4S than even on the Nexus 4). Even with the new iOS 7 version, Indian users are bound to stay disappointed with Siri. A look at Apple’s official list of feature availability shows that Indian users will not get most of Siri’s new features including Twitter and Facebook integration, local search, directions, restaurant information, reservation and reviews, movie information, reviews and showtimes, and dictation.
For all the news of Apple’s newfound focus on India, the people heading the company at Cupertino seem to have very little interest in the needs of Apple users in India. This is exemplified by the dearth of Siri features and also by the fact that the company has done little to improve other services like Apple Maps and Passbook for Indian users. Looking at the slow pace with which Apple has attempted to improve its portfolio of services and hardware in India, I guess all current and prospective Apple users within our shores will need to be satisfied with very little or move to products from companies like Samsung and Nokia who actually seem to give a damn about the Indian market.
I am the owner of an iPhone 4S and although I love the phone, I’m sick of Apple’s step-motherly treatment of its consumers over here. Do you feel the same way? Tell me on Twitter @postwar or in the comments section below.
Source: 9 to 5 Mac via Slash Gear