14 DAY TRIAL // Andy Rubin, Google’s mobile boss, shared a few thoughts on Apple-after-Steve Jobs at the AsiaD conference on Wednesday during which he also expressed his sincere belief that phones shouldn’t be assistants.
Asked whether he believed Apple would “lose step” now that its visionary leader has passed away, Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Google’s Mobile division, said:
“I don’t think so…The DNA in the people walking the halls at Apple is a very powerful combination of the arts and computer science, and I don’t think that’s changed with Steve’s passing. That combination of creativity and computer science, it’s still there. Apple will certainly miss Steve’s leadership, but now it’s time for the other guys to step up.”
Mr. Rubin, however, doesn’t have only positive thoughts about Apple’s business, and their approach to offer customers what they believe they need. He says Siri is a good example of that.
“Your phone is a tool for communicating. You shouldn’t be communicating with the phone; you should be communicating with somebody on the other side of the phone… To some degree it is natural for you to talk to your phone…We’ll see how pervasive it gets,” said Rubin.
Of course, when you’re talking to Siri you’re actually communicating with a bunch of servers, not the phone itself - something Mr. Rubin fails to point out.
In this respecy, you could say “you shouldn’t be communicating with the computer”, yet that’s what we seem to do whenever we type something in a Google search bar, right?
Undoubtedly some will regard Mr. Rubin’s comments as a total lack of vision, while others will probably agree with his belief that Siri isn’t the future of search. Then again, Mr. Rubin does work for Google.
And, going by the comments people are posting here on Softpedia, I’d say Siri stands a good chance at replacing traditional search in a matter of years.
Siri is a personal assistant initially developed by a team of computer savvy people who later sold their IP to Apple for $200 million.
Apple quickly assembled a team to implement all of Siri’s nuts and bolts in iOS and rolled out the finalized product (well, not really, it’s still in beta) earlier this month. It gets everything done for you just by speaking to it - reminders, text messages, email, general knowledge etc.
People are having a blast asking Siri such questions as “Do you love me?”, or “What’s the meaning of life?” The assistant is also capable of learning its master’s preferences over time.