FIXZR

I’m in awe of Apple. They are just so viciously clever. The introduction of voice as a new and compelling interface option (which is a noteworthy achievement in itself) gives them control over partners in a way not seen before. Imagine introducing a new keyboard, but one that only works with Bing (I’m stretching for emphasis!). This is what voice enables, they can pick and choose who the interface works with. Full respect to GigaOM who pointed this out (I did think of it before reading their post), and the threat it poses to Google.

As a general theme, new mobile technologies and service that reduce the need to input, or simplify the input process, have got to be a good bet.

It is somewhat ironic that the new voice services require (I believe) more meaty processing power on the device. Given the devices are/were built in the first place to communicate voice back to a giant cloud/exchange, it is strange that voice recognition is not a prime candidate for centralised processing power (please correct me if Siri is using this approach).

[Update] I believe Siri has to have an internet connection to work - not sure how it shares the load between local and cloud however