[freejack]

I think much of the commentary misses the fact that Siri is not a feature, its a UI, and a very early-stage one at that. Criticizing Siri as less than useful in its current iteration is like criticizing WIMP as less than useful 20 years ago.

The fact that Siri is UI and not a feature is exactly why Microsoft and Google and many other service providers should worry about it - it commoditizes the back-end and creates a new interaction point around which Apple, and currently only Apple, is creating business value. Both Microsoft and Google have technology cards to play in this area, but neither has deployed a new user-interface in the way that Apple recently has. I would expect them to each go after a solid play in this area, in the same way that Microsoft responded to the Wii with Kinect - with a strong competitive urgency. Whether or not they are successful in their response is something we'll know in time.

[Tichy]

How is it an UI? I mean it is voice input. OK, that's an UI, but it is an UI that has been around for thousands of years. Non-Apple phones also had voice input for years. Now Siri adds some things it recognizes, like calendar dates. What is so revolutionary about it? Other vendors will also add more tasks to their voice recognition. Google is arguably in a better position to do so, because they have worked on the problem for years (not voice recognition, but what do users mean when they search for "x").

[freejack]

I never said revolutionary, you did. Had you asked, I would have probably characterized it as "evolutionary" more than anything - but most innovation is.

I disagree that this is imply "voice input". Siri takes a step beyond simple data input and manipulation and provides a new interface to several system functions and services in a cohesive and purposeful fashion.

If, as you contend, that Google is well positioned to respond to Siri, then they probably will - I'm not sure you actually read my original comment - I had pretty clearly indicated that both Microsoft and Google have assets that they can deploy in response to Siri.