Tim Cook's biggest problems so far: Maps,iCloud & iOS. We know he's aware of Maps & fixing it, albeit slowly. iCloud's idiosyncrasies are mostly a developer problem. iOS, though, is getting tired fast & it's highly visible to the consumer.
Siri is still a gimmick. That's bordering on the unacceptable now, esp when compared to Google's voice offerings & how fast they've reached par & exceeded it. Stil no APIs, no offline capability, slow response times when it's working.
Slow is relative here: this isn't an overnight fix. It's very, very complicated.
> iOS […] is getting tired fast & it's highly visible to the consumer.
Really? What consumers? They're on track to sell 46m iPhone 5 units in this quarter.
When people bellyache about iOS it serves to remind me that the people who debate phone operating systems on the internet are categorically not the target market. If you happen to like it then great. If not, Apple doesn't give a shit: this is a mass market consumer device.
> Siri is still a gimmick
Siri is really, really useful when it works. It needs to work faster, and it needs to work more often (i.e. not garble my input), but I'm highly impressed by it.
> esp when compared to Google's voice offerings
Which are far less sophisticated
> & how fast they've reached par & exceeded it
Unless I'm missing a Google Siri beater, you're talking about Google's voice search in its iOS app. It's much faster than Siri, but it's also much less sophisticated. I asked this very question on Quora recently[1].
> Stil no APIs, no offline capability, slow response times when it's working
Apple is feeling this out. Don't expect APIs until they work out a way to do it really simply.
Offline capacity is a joke, right? We live in a world where we're online on airplanes and even on the subway (in London). Is it in Apple's interests to spend precious engineering resource on a solution to a problems which won't exist in a few years? And I bet a lot of Siri's usage is for online activities anyway. Or put it this way: what's the point in building offline mode for Siri when it's just for setting reminders (can't do geofencing: no signal), launching apps (which can't connect to the net) and writing emails and text messages which won't get sent.
You're totally right on slow response times. It's painfully slow. My guess is that performance is now Apple's top priority with Siri.
> Unless I'm missing a Google Siri beater, you're talking about Google's voice search in its iOS app. It's much faster than Siri, but it's also much less sophisticated. I asked this very question on Quora recently[1].
I believe he's talking about Google Now on Android, which has already surpassed Siri.
I just watched a load of videos about it (didn't know it was out, the only one I was aware of was Samsung's S-Voice thing). I think you need to qualify "surpassed", but my take was that it was much, much, faster in a lot of instances but a lot of the time it was not determining context but doing a web search.
It creates the impression of doing the same thing but the context is, I think, being derived largely from Google's web search backend (which already knows what I mean when I type "NY Giants scores"). It may be that this is a sustainable path for Google. Apple has to work out what you mean before it ties you into a solution. Largely Google Now didn't seem to be doing that. (Not criticising one or the other for that.)
That Quora thread you cite is just speculation and really isn't any sort of evidence. That's no basis for making a conclusion about the technical merits of Google's voice search.
Consumers were pretty happy with PalmOS & Motorola Q until the iPhone came out. We, however, the populace of geeks who inhabit HN, should know better. There are many ways in which Android is pulling away from iOS. From automatic app updates, to account registration & syncing..to widgets & lockscreens. None of these are a fatal blow but all taken together start adding up to a significant advantage.
On the other hand, iOS smoothness & polish are still second to none. I'm not saying it's a bad mobile os at all. It's an amazing piece of software. I'm saying I wish it were evolving.. faster. Just look at the amazing update iTunes just received. Compared to the previous version, It's an order of magnitude faster on my laptop. I was hoping for a similar leap from iOS5 to 6. It didn't materialize.
Recently, I saw an Article on The Verge taking on the static weather app icon that hasn't changed since 2007 & how it's a metaphor for Apple's being overly careful & protective (or lazy, take your pick) of the UI it introduced with the first iPhone. I think that's valid criticism.
Full Disclosure : I carry two devices with me all the time. an iPhone 5 (iOS 6.1, beta 3) & a Galaxy Nexus (4.2.1) I've had every single iPhone since day 1, Every single iPad except for the 4 & the mini. i'm typing this comment on Macbook air.
"From automatic app updates, to account registration & syncing..to widgets & lockscreens. None of these are a fatal blow but all taken together start adding up to a significant advantage."
I think you're overhyping all of these. The one huge feature that is sorely lacking in iOS is contracts/intents/services.
When you say no, I assume you are referring to actual app updates and bug fixes as opposed to content updates?
Not being a pedant, I had never thought of this aspect either.
One thing I've noticed since switching to Android from IOS is that I spend a lot of time 'customizing' the look of the interface instead of just using it like I did with IOS.
iOS is pretty much an app launcher. And that seems fine until you use an os that allows apps to extend the base functionality of the system and you realize how much more an os can be.
The variety of new keyboards available on Android is a great example. While iOS users are still pecking away like it's 2007 I have swype or swiftkey if I want them and the innovation in those apps is now making its way into core Android.
Another example - I can make Viber the default handler for all messaging, both sms and Viber messages.
I can make Firefox my default browser for everything and it's not just a wrapper around webkit.
I can share to pocket from almost any app, not just those that explicitly code for it.
When I want to attach a photo to an email I can choose from any app on the phone that provides images, not just those that the app developer found time to support.
>>Siri is still a gimmick. That's bordering on the unacceptable now, esp when compared to Google's voice offerings & how fast they've reached par & exceeded it. Stil no APIs, no offline capability, slow response times when it's working.
I'll be frank: you do not understand what makes Siri important or useful. It's not simple voice recognition and dictation (which Google does better), but the fact that it's tightly integrated with many apps and services. Being able to look up facts on Wolfram Alpha, set reminders and alarms, find restaurants, and countless other things from any screen is invaluable. I'd even go so far as to call it revolutionary.
Google is not even close to matching this level of tight integration (party because they don't have the same level of control over their own ecosystem as Apple does over iOS).
The problem for me, when I tried Siri, is it just didn't understand me often enough. You can have all the integration you want, but it doesn't help if the recognition isn't up to scratch.
I think your broad point is true: Google's reco is better, Siri's integration is deeper, but you really need both to make it useful.
Siri is still a gimmick. That's bordering on the unacceptable now, esp when compared to Google's voice offerings & how fast they've reached par & exceeded it. Stil no APIs, no offline capability, slow response times when it's working.