Siri vs. Tellme

[pbankey]

So, the iPhone presentation didn't impress me as much as I expected it to, but the Siri demonstration did. Here's the question I have to Microsoft--

When are you actually going to deliver your concepts even remotely close to how you show them off as?

Anyone remember the Tellme concept video? Where the friends use Tellme to find cakes/wedding venues? Somehow, Apple has already managed to get Siri to do a lot more intelligent and seamless tasks with their phone in that manner than Microsoft ever has with WP7, and that bothers me some.

By the way, here's the video I'm talking about: Microsoft Tellme "Say it. Get it." - YouTube

It's almost comical how much of a pipe dream that concept is. All I can do with Tellme is call, text, search, or open an application. Siri is already much more advanced and it beats down the morale a little bit being a WP7 junkie that I am.

Here's another pipe dream concept that vanished: Microsoft "Courier" secret tablet - YouTube the dual screen tablet that was quite literally too good to ever be true.

Am I missing something? Does anyone else get that feeling?

 

[Coffee]

not really. MS has a huge research department and they are constantly putting together concepts - just like car companies have really cool concepts (remember the Volt before they dumbed it down?) that look nothing like the released version.

The Courier was never going to be produced, that's just what the internet wanted. It was just another research concept. You can't blame MS for not producing everything they dream up.

Siri is a cool application (that Apple bought) but I have no idea how well it will work in practice. apple doesn't use the 'beta' tag very often, so I wonder what it will be like.

 

[Reflexx]

I want to see TellMe work on my phone as well as Siri works on the iPhone.

Perhaps there's a 3rd party dev that can make an app that does this? Is the TellMe API open?

 

[Pronk]

MS do, unfortunately, have quite a bad habit of announcing vapourware and/or products whose spec list on launch is a lot less impressive than originally intended. This used to be a business tactic - get people interested in the amazing product you have, killing their interest in a competitor's product so it doesn't fly, then release a less-than-stellar product later because there's now no/limited competition and/or buy the (now struggling) competitor at a lower price.

Problem is, apart from it being a questionable tactic anyway it doesn't work anymore because other people are producing equal or better things faster and Microsoft isn't seen as invincible anymore. You can't divert attention away from the opposition with something coming soon when they have it right now AND it's equal/better, and they're not scared of you these days.