Siri is the most embarrassing part of Apple, and it’s safe to say it could be another MobileMe moment in the making.
Apple’s MobileMe Moment is Back Once Again, But this Time it’s Bigger than Before
MobileMe was Apple’s colossal failure. Steve Jobs gathered employees in the Town Hall auditorium at 4 Infinite Loop and asked: “Can anyone tell me what MobileMe is supposed to do?”
Steve Jobs got his reply, and then he asked: “So why the f**k doesn’t it do that?”
Eventually, MobileMe would be shuttered and replaced by iCloud.
Apple is nearing that moment again, but this time with Siri. However, instead of Apple asking the questions among themselves, its customers are.
When Siri was first introduced with iPhone 4s in 2011, it was supposed to be the assistant for getting information, contact details, sending texts, and so much more.
13 years later, it can’t even tell us what month it is. The advanced and personalized Siri was supposed to revamp the old assistant and take us into a complex yet easy-to-understand future, and instead went one step backwards.
Apple is doing an executive reshuffle to fix Siri up. But my question is: where was this reshuffle when everyone else from the competition were two steps ahead of Apple?
I’m sure Apple is going to fix this disaster once and for all, just like how it did so with Maps. If there’s one thing Apple is good at, it’s solving problems.
But with Siri, it feels like the team behind it always manage to get away with it no matter what happens.
Keep one thing in mind: when MobileMe was shuttered in 2012, iCloud took over and it did things better. This happened at a time when people really didn’t care much about services going away and starting all over again.
The year 2025 is different. Apple has a reputation of sticking with what it has shipped and improve it further. If something is shuttered today, it is going to leave a sour taste among fans.
The work that has gone into Siri doesn’t have to go to waste. But what the customer needs right now is taken into confidence by Tim Cook himself regarding Siri. Everything should be clear as day how and when the new assistant will roll out and what future plans are going to be.
No more ‘I am genius’ ads.
