On August 9, 2011, Apple's Siri software was released to the world. It became an overnight, worldwide success and is now widely known for its ease of use, realistic personality, and comical responses. Five months later, rumors have surfaced that Google's secret Project X team has been working nonstop to develop their own Siri type search tool called Majel. Majel is named after the voice for the Star Trek federation computer and will be able to control more complex actions such as apps and the device. Google is under a storm of attacks which claim that Google is just copying Apple and they are just being imitators and not innovators. I believe that it is Apple who is the imitator on the other hand, and let me explain why. Apple never came up with the idea for Siri, they didn't even make Siri. Siri was originally an application, made by a 3rd party, which was supposed to be available on both the Apple app store and the Google market place. Apple bought Siri, claimed it as their own, and just threw it into their phones. They weren't innovative at all; they just used money to expand their products. Google, on the other hand, has had voice capabilities built into their phones long before Siri was even in the planning phase. Although it is little known, android phones have the ability to send text, set alarms, and browse the web through voice communication. Siri copied Google and now Google is trying to regain the sales that are rightfully theirs. Google has been the innovator the entire time and Apple just tried imitating them.
An interesting point. I would like to ask, does it really matter who the innovator was and who released the technology first? Clearly, those who call Google only imitators and not innovators are ignorant to the full knowledge. However, saying Apple is not innovative because they bought and released 3rd party technology is not exactly accurate either.
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