Microsoft exec: Siri is nothing special, we’ve had it for over a year | 9to5Mac | Apple Intelligence:
Craig Mundie of Microsoft on Siri:
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.
Maybe this is what’s wrong with Microsoft. They can’t see the wood for the trees. Maybe he’s right, maybe Windows Phone 7’s best-kept secret was a helpful Siri-like butler. But why didn’t we know about it? I don’t think it had a name, for a start.
Fact is, there’s nothing particularly new or revolutionary about voice recognition. It’s just that Apple took the concept, gave it a name, polished the edges and caught the public imagination. Flawed it may be in its first iteration, but it works and people love it. That’s marketing and that’s the meaning of success.