"The talking iPhone has only just started to change the world."
"Anything that can be structured into discrete bits of data will eventually be worked into natural-language-processing systems like Siri’s."
The best is yet to come!
Much like the apps on the original iPhone, Siri is more of a demo than a final product. It’s Apple’s way of illustrating the value of an effectively designed bot. When the iPhone launched in July 2007, there were no third-party applications. Similarly, Siri has yet to fully open up to outside developers.
Just as the true value of the iPhone became clear only when the App Store blossomed, Siri will have her most significant impact only after integrating further with a wide range of data sources. When that happens — remember, the iPhone took a year to open up — people will grow accustomed to asking their iPhones for health remedies, gardening tips and Scrabble lessons. They’ll search for and book restaurant tables through OpenTable. They’ll book tennis court reservations that Siri will automatically cancel if the forecast she monitors changes to rain.
Personal Data: Dramatic Business Impact
In the realm of personal data, Siri could have a dramatic business impact. If manufacturers of devices like the Zeo and the Fitbit, which measure sleep and fitness patterns, become Siri-compatible, we’ll increasingly query our phones not just for generic weather, stock and movie info, but about our own health, diet and fitness patterns. We’ll ask Siri whether we’ve exceeded our daily calorie count, whether we’ve hit our walking goals, and whether our heart rate has strayed from our target range. We’ll ask our fridge to notify Siri when it’s time to replenish the milk and butter. She’ll remind us when the phone’s GPS indicates we’re in the store.
Global research firm RNCOS estimates the mobile health market — devices monitoring health and fitness — to exceed $2 billion. Just as Apple has partnered with Nike on the Nike + workout app, other partnerships will arise. The most likely result is an ecosystem of apps that plug into Siri through an application program interface, much like Microsoft’s SYNC system works with cars. Just as we can customize phone ring tones, we may eventually customize the language and vocal inflection in which Siri speaks to us.
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