Apple has purchased mobile assistant app Siri

what is the fascination with finding sushi restaurants ?

I'll take a fully-integrated, always-on, device-aware, private-API-using Siri over one with a few more options *any* day.

Unfortunately Siri isn't available on swedish appstore. Anyone care to send the app through mail, or give me a link to download this masterpiece?

Joanna D, I notice you're almost always negatively critical of Apple in such a way that spurs flame wars or just plain isn't helpful or informative at all. I hope you can contribute positively in the future. The comments aren't just for arguments.

So Apple is not an innovative company at all?

Yes yes...everyone knows that the key to innovation is ignoring others' good ideas!

Addendum to previous comment: I believe the marketing video I saw was for Copland, not Rhapsody, as this was previous to the acquisition of NeXT.

Buying the right technologies as part of a solid business plan is the very essence of innovation in the software industry. The whole idea that everything needs to be built in-house is not exactly current business practice. iTunes is a shining example of innovation. How many other MP3 playing programs are now the foundation of a whole hardware and e-commerce platform?

Small companies can afford to develop a technology and take it right to market. The risk is low and they don't have to justify their actions to shareholders. Larger companies generally identify a market opportunity, generate a business plan, and then do a build/buy analysis. So often, buy makes more sense. Especially with a company full of cash.

Buy gives you quick time to market for an initial offering, often brings valuable IP, and in the case of a company with current revenues, can be immediately accretive to shareholders. The real innovation is having the vision and exercising on it. Not creating all the code in-house.

It's funny, when I first played with Siri I thought, "This reminds me of the Rhapsody marketing video I saw back in the mid-90s." It featured a digital personal assistant doing exactly these kinds of things... making reservations for you, buying plane tickets, etc. I know Jobs wasn't at Apple yet, but perhaps someone put the Intelligent Agent bug in his ear. I think these kinds of Intelligent Agents are the next Big Thing. We have all of this information, but it is piecemeal. Let computers do the work for us.

I suspect Siri must have some key patents and IP related to local search. That would be importanT to squeeze Google out.