Siri was first introduced as an exclusive on the iPhone 4S. Now, it is also found on the iPhone 5. However, did you know that, before Apple stepped in, it was supposed to be for Android?
The Huffington Post has revealed Siri’s history. The article says, “In 2003, the agency’s investment arm, DARPA, tapped the non-profit research institute SRI International to lead a five-year, 500-person effort to build a virtual assistant, one the government hoped might yield software to help military commanders with both information overload and office chores. Although it wasn’t the project’s mission, this helper, the Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes, or CALO, would ultimately provide the inspiration and model for Siri.”
Sadly, at the time, people found the project to be “a dumb idea,” but it would eventually find its way on mobile phones.
It was Verizon who saw the potential of Siri, which made it decide to make a deal with Siri’s makers to make it a default app for its Android phones. Siri would have been an Android default if not for Apple.
The article reads, “In the fall of 2009, several months before Apple approached Siri, Verizon had signed a deal with the startup to make Siri a default app on all Android phones set to launch in the new year. When Apple swooped in to buy Siri, it insisted on making the assistant exclusive to Apple devices, and nixed the Verizon deal. In the process, it narrowly avoided seeing Siri become a selling point for smartphones powered by its biggest rival, Google. (Somewhere in the vaults of the wireless giant, there are unreleased commercials touting Siri as an Android add-on.)
“Its first and only app had barely been available for two full months. And now Siri — and its future — belonged to Apple.”
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