According to new reports by Piper Jaffray, Siri isn’t using Google to answer questions nearly as much as she used to. The investment firm tested Siri’s data collection skills back in June, prior to the release of iOS 6. Their findings suggested that Siri used Google around 60 percent of the time when answering questions.
The newest reports, which were collected recently on Apple’s new iOS 6 platform, show that Siri now only turns to Google around 30 percent of the time. That’s a 50 percent decrease in how reliant Siri is on Google’s search engines. It is suggested that this massive decrease is due to Apple dropping Google’s popular Maps application from its devices. According to Piper Jaffray, Siri’s map inquiries accounted for 27 percent of the total inquiries made through Google.
Accuracy tests for both Siri and Google’s own assistant (Nexus line of devices) were also given. According to the report, in a quiet area devoid of crowd noise, Siri understood an individual’s request 91 percent of the time, while Google’s assistant understood 88 percent of the time. Accuracy tests were much closer. Siri was accurate around 77 percent of the time, while Google’s answers came in a 75 percent.
With the recent axing of Google’s Maps application from iOS 6 and now these reports from Piper Jaffray concerning Siri’s dependency on Google’s search engine, it is obvious that Apple is attempting to distance itself as much as possible from Google. It’s almost as if these two companies are starting to show less than favorable attitudes towards one another.
Perhaps we are going to see a full blown rivalry spark up in the coming year. I doubt it will be anything as prominent as Apple versus Microsoft, or Apple versus Samsung, but it has the potential to shake up the consumer tech world a little more. Just remember, the more these tech giants fight, the better it is for us consumers.
Photo Credit: Apple
