I have an iPhone 3GS, I’m happy with it, but it’s upgrade time and I can’t wait to get my itchy hands on that 4s. The 4s from a 3GS is a no brainer upgrade. Faster, newer design, better camera etc.
But what I’m excited about is Siri. And judging by the forum and twitter activity, I’m not the only one in love with the idea of having some sort Star Trek/HAL (without the crazy parts) talking interface with a computer/device. However I was disappointed to discover that the 4s is gojng to launch in the UK with a crippled service. Specifically, limited local language support, and no maps or local service search outside of the USA. So basically outside of the USA you can’t get directions on a map or ask Siri to find your nearest ATM for instance.
I find this interesting as apple have completely sold the 4s on the whole premise of Siri.
I’m still going to get my 4s without question. I understand that the software is in beta, and within a couple of months there will most likely be a iOS 5.0.1 update which will fix any bugs and subsequent updates will add all feature missing (I hope). I understand this. It’s part of the technology world. I’m not the problem.
So what is my problem. Well my problem is that apple is well known for just having things work. They really rarely release something that isn’t either done or pretty much done. So to release video demos of Siri in all it’s glory, get everyone exited about it and then have everyone outside of the US have to find out for themselves that they just can’t do some of this (yet), just bothers me a little.
The way I see it there’s two sets of people who will jump on this.
The first the apple haters and forum trolls. These guys are a niche, small group, who’s opinions will hardly effect anything. There not going to buy iPhones anyway.
Then there’s the general public, the ones that buy and just expect something to work out of the box and they don’t want to think or care what a beta piece of software is. And these are the people that can make a difference.
Ok at the time of writing apple has sold 4 million 4s’s. So it does not seem to have bothered anyone. But it still bothers me that a company known for it’s perfectionism and attention to detail, and emphasis on ease of use would release something so big; with so much hype around, incomplete. It’s ok to release FaceTime as a beta. It’s ok to release iTunes when it did nothing at all really, when only a small percentage of people had macs. But the iPhone is huge.
