“Siri Is Nothing Special” Says Microsoft Executive..I Mean, Seriously?

Instead of acknowledging Siri’s sheer brilliance, Microsoft’s chief strategy and research officer Craig Mundie has told Forbes in an interview that Apple’s iPhone 4S exclusive voice assistant technology is nothing special. He rather argued that Microsoft has had a similar capability in Windows Phones for more than a year, since Windows Phone 7 was introduced. I mean, seriously? As Christian Zibreg of 9to5Mac has saidSiri-like functionality is non-existent in Windows Phone software. It’s like saying Android has Siri just because it can recognize a limited set of voice commands.”

Here’s what he says:

People are infatuated with Apple announcing it. It’s good marketing, but at least as the technological capability you could argue that Microsoft has had a similar capability in Windows Phones for more than a year, since Windows Phone 7 was introduced.

You can pick ‘em up and say ‘text Eric’ and say what you wanna say and it transcribes it. You can query anything through Bing by just saying the words. I mean, all that’s already there. Fully functional, been there for a year.

A similarly stupid argument came from Google’s vice president of mobile Andy Rubi as to why people didn’t need Siri:

Your phone is a tool for communicating. You shouldn’t be communicating with the phone; you should be communicating with somebody on the other side of the phone.

Without a doubt, rivals are now scrambling to develop their own Siri-like technology and Apple bringing it first on the iPhone has really kicked them where it hurts.

So guys, what are your thoughts about Microsoft and Google’s takes on Siri? We’re dying to hear your comments!

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