Report: Siri Coming To iPad With iOS 6

With its latest iPad — “the new iPad” — Apple introduced voice dictation capability (via Nuance) but not its virtual assistant Siri. Now comes a report that Siri will soon come to the iPad with the iOS 6 update, which is also supposed to mark the debut of Apple Maps/iMaps. Next week is Apple’s WWDC […]

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SiriWith its latest iPad — “the new iPad” — Apple introduced voice dictation capability (via Nuance) but not its virtual assistant Siri. Now comes a report that Siri will soon come to the iPad with the iOS 6 update, which is also supposed to mark the debut of Apple Maps/iMaps.

Next week is Apple’s WWDC event, which should see the introduction of iOS 6.

The blog 9to5Mac says it’s not clear whether Siri will be available exclusively for the third-generation iPad or whether it will also come to the iPad2. If it’s baked into the OS update that would probably include iPad 2 at a minimum. However the original iPad may not make the cut because of insufficient processing power.

A March 2012 survey (n=482) survey from Parks Associates found that initiating calls and texts were the most common Siri-related activities. That survey also found the following:

  • 87 percent of iPhone 4S owners said they used Siri at least monthly
  • Over 30 percent said they used Siri “almost daily”
  • 26 used Siri to send email daily

More advanced capabilities such as calendar integration were less widely used. In the Parks survey 55 percent said they were “satisfied” with Siri and 9 percent were “unsatisfied.”

An earlier (small sample) survey from ChangeWave, shortly after the release of the iPhone 4s last Fall, found that Siri was the most popular feature of the new iPhone:

Screen Shot 2012 06 04 At 10.48.32 AM

Source: ChangeWave, November 2011, n=215 Apple iPhone 4S owners

To my knowledge there’s no data about whether and how frequently people are using Siri for web search (e.g., “Search the web for XYZ”). Based on the Parks survey data it doesn’t appear this is one of the more common use cases. However Siri asks if you would like to “search the web” for your query if it can’t provide an answer.

In his recent appearance at the D10 conference Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple was “doubling down” on Siri. Cook added, “There’s more that [Siri] can do and we have a lot of people working on this.” Cook characterized Siri as the most popular feature of the most popular smartphone in the world.

With the impending introduction of Apple Maps, it will be interesting to see how Siri integrates with that capability and how it impacts local search.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Greg Sterling
Contributor
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.

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