Siri’s, Dumb Charades Invites Legal Woes For Apple

Siri is a new feature, unveiled recently by Apple, for its iPhone 4S. However, it is being alleged that all the hype and tall expectations that preceded it were hollow and that it had belied all the expectations of the people who were enticed by the ads.

One New Yorker, Frank M. Fazio has filed a class action complaint against Apple, under California consumer protection laws, alleging that whatever the ads have to say about Siri’s capabilities are ‘intentionally deceitful.’

What exactly did Siri promise and not deliver? Siri a speech recognition computer application has both speech output and input, meaning you can talk to it and it will respond to you. You can ask Siri questions ranging from the weather, to fixing and appointment, or ask for directions whilst driving. It will respond with the appropriate answers.

Its other capabilities included, connecting you to contacts just by speaking the name of someone in your contact list and turning spoken email to text.

However, it seems that Siri falls short of Apple’s claims. In his suit, the plaintiff Frank Fazio charges “For example, in many of Apple’s television advertisements, individuals are shown using Siri to make appointments, find restaurants, and even learn the guitar chords to classic rock songs or how to tie a tie. In the commercials, all of these tasks are done with ease with the assistance of the iPhone 4S’s Siri feature, a represented functionality, contrary to the actual operating results and performance of Siri.”

Mr. Fazio alleges that Apple used Siri to present iPhone4S as superior to its earlier iPhone models, to enable them to price it higher. But he believes, “Siri hasn’t even come close to living up to how Apple portrayed her.” Analysts have described Siri as “impressive but still a work in progress” saying that the software is a long way from realizing its full potential.

Those who purchased iPhone4S, assuming that the voice controlled digital assistant would be at their command day and night have reasons to be disillusioned and disappointed. Apple does remind users that the appliance may not always work as a charm, since Siri is a beta feature on the appliance and “customers should expect bugs and other issues with the service.”

Opinions differ; Apple says that they believed Siri was delivering what it promised to do, users beg to disagree. Were the expectations too high or the promises to lofty? The lawsuit verdict will be much awaited.