SIRI: Steve Jobs last big bet was on making Apple the Artificial Intelligence company -- His Legacy

[Distant Observer]

Jobs bought the AI company Siri, Inc., 2 months after their product launch and 6 hours before the release of Siri onto all the other major mobile platforms. He had trying to buy it from when the first product was in beta. It was a feverish acquisition process. He paid much more that was ever revealed -- via non-cash, long-term commitments to the inventors and to SRI (Stanford Research Institute).

The launch of Apple Siri -- the the modified iPhone 4 (4S) was likely pushed so it would happen before Job's death. Most did not understand that the talk iPhone event was a software launch, not a hardware announcement. But it could be Steve Job's real legacy.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenwunker/2011/10/04/why-apples-amazing-siri-may-herald-the-end-of-the-iphone/

Why Apple's Amazing Siri May Herald the End of the iPhone

Apple may not have announced an iPhone 5 today, but it seems hardly to matter. The company’s new Siri “intelligent assistant” melds computing into everyday life in a remarkably novel — and useful — way. A dozen years ago, we in the PDA business (in a former life, I led the smartphone program at Britain’s Psion PLC) heard consumers ask for voice activated organizers, but we never imagined something so far-reaching, intuitive, and…fun. This looks like another mega-hit for Apple.

Yet while we pop the champagne and queue to use the service, pause to think a moment about Apple’s strategy. The company has minted money through marrying device and interface in a way that stand-alone hardware and software companies never did. The Mac, iPod, and iPhone all succeeded through integrating radical hardware and software innovations to stand out from crowded markets. With today’s announcement, we are seeing a shift. The hardware unveiled in the iPhone 4S is more
advanced than in the previous generation, to be sure, but it is hardly exciting. Apple now seems to be betting on the software to drive the sales. With Siri, iCloud, and innumerable less prominent systems, the company is ingraining its systems into users’ lives in an unprecedented way.

New Revenue Streams – Siri could be the ultimate “freemium” play. Once a person is using the system regularly for appointments and contacts, it would be so tempting to use it look up restaurants, get traffic reports, and take care of life’s impromptu essentials. How much is that worth? What about all the hyper-targeted advertising this makes possible? Apple would understand an individual like no other company — not even Google — and it could match ads to very specific occasions. Existing Internet players target pieces of the puzzle, but Apple would have unparalleled power due to both its data analytics and its ownership of the voice interface.

[Distant Observer]

1. kick for Steve

[Major Hogwash]

2. I'm going to the Apple Store today!

As soon as it opens.

That's great news for analytics, huh?

[Distant Observer]

3. Jobs believed that Siri technology was unique in learning what the user's needs and intentions

thus providing the Apple "cloud" with growing power to deliver services reliably on demand or even before demand.

[Major Hogwash]

4. That is very interesting.

I didn't know about the Siri technology that he was interested in, but Jobs was a visionary like no one else.
So, this is a very informative thread.

[Javaman]

5. Without a doubt, I bet Mr. Jobs left a very long list of things to do and a "path"

for Apple follow before he passed away. We will still be feeling his effects on the computer world for many years to come. Just because the man is gone, doesn't mean his ideas went with him.

[Distant Observer]

6. Siri was the principal commercial spin-off of DARPA'S CALO PROJECT - largest AI project in history

[Distant Observer]

7. Most AI labs in US involved and had received $200m before the Siri spin-off

[Distant Observer]

8. Most Analyst have now come out -- SIRI is the future of Apple

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/siri-and-apples-future/

Siri matters for two reasons. First, it represents the future of Apple as a business. Second, Siri potentially is the future of what is now called search.