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A week ago, almost to the hour, Apple execs took to the stage for the WWDC keynote. Siri was the warm-up act for the show (see WWDC replay), and when it came time to talk iOS 6, Scott Forstall spent a chunk of time going over the new voice commands they built into Siri. Apple also made it clear that they're going to continue building out Siri's knowledge base.
All the Siri talk got me thinking about whether we'll see BlackBerry put any sort of effort in to building out their own version of a voice command/interaction app like Siri. We know other phone companies are hoping to not let Apple completely steal the show in this department. For example, Samsung's new Galaxy SIII features S-Voice and Google is working on Google Assistant. RIM has a lot to do as it is in bringing BlackBerry 10 to market and I doubt they can do it all for launch - so even it's on the BlackBerry radar right now, I'm guessing it would be lower down the priority list.
Personally, I don't think it's that critical that BlackBerry worry about this for the launch of BlackBerry 10. I know a lot of iPhone 4S owners, and of them very few actually put Siri to use on an a regular basis (exception, Rene Ritchie from iMore). I picked up an iPhone 4S when it came out just to try Siri out, and while I found it ok for a few things -- like getting directions while driving -- I just couldn't put it to use in my daily mobile work flow. I'm not going to use it in public (I'd have to kick my own ass) and in private I'd rather masterfully manipulate my phone with my thumbs and control my actions than talk to it with the chance of it messing up and not recognizing my question. But that's just me. And maybe over time my feelings will change.
Question of the Day: So what I want to know is how you feel about Siri and apps/services like it. Do you think it's important that BlackBerry be working on a BlackBerry Voice service a la Sir ASAP? Or is this a lesser priority that can be worked on over time. Vote on the poll above and sound off in the comments!
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