Apple has a lot of money. So much so that they can do anything they want right now, including buying 2,668,445,630 copies of Avatar from the iTunes store, or maybe bailing out Greece. But recently, they decided to spend a little bit of cash on Siri, an app that we reviewed in February. For the uninitiated (or the lazy ones who don’t want to click the link – you know who you are), Siri is dubbed as a personal assistant. Just speak into the phone, say exactly what you want, and it’ll find a way to make it happen. See the above image if you don’t believe me.
First, let’s talk price. The Business Insider has an estimate:
How much did Apple spend? Siri reps wouldn’t comment, but given how early the company sold, and how much money it raised — $24 million — we assume that somewhere between $100 million to $200 million could be possible. However, Google only spent $50 million on Aardvark, whose software solves a sorta-similar problem.
Here’s the interesting part: Siri is, at its heart, a search engine. It taps into the functions of the iPhone and does it pretty well, translating the spoken word into text with amazing accuracy and then using that data to do what you want it to do. It’s like Apple’s Voice Control on speed.
Now there are two routes here that Apple could potentially take: They could cut up the company, take its developers and go from there, or they could integrate Siri into the next version of the OS. My bet is on the latter, and it would be a great way for Apple to get into the search business, but also to beef up Voice Control.
Looks like that Apple and Google relationship is gonna get rougher in the coming months.
