As much as the iPhone 4S is a disappointment to many people, who were expecting a radically re-designed iPhone 5, the iPhone 4S, does sport some impressive hardware changes which make the phone faster and the camera have more megapixels. A faster phone and a better camera, although nice improvements, aren’t going to make anyone excited. Apple is hoping that its Siri Voice Assistant, which is why is why the new phone is called the iPhone 4S, is the feature that gives it a competitive advantage over its Android rivals. In order for that to happen, Siri has to be useful in the minds of consumers…

Voice recognition technology is nothing new. You’ve probably used it before and know, from experience, that a voice assistant can confuse what you’re saying when background noise is present and forces you to talk in limited phrases that the assistant can understand. Apple claims that, with Siri, you are not limited to specific phrases and can use your natural language to communicate with the phone. If Siri works as advertised, Apple will be doing what it has always done: decrease the number of steps you have to take to go from point A to point B. Siri takes away the entire screen user interface and replaces it with what we do naturally: talk.

Although Apple fans and those mildly interested in Apple were somewhat let down yesterday by the announcement of a an upgraded iPhone 4, the disappointment may be unfounded. People have used voice recognition technology before and their experiences with it have been nothing special. Voice assistants that people are used to are too inaccurate to be useful and Apple hopes to change all of that with Siri.

Apple still has to convince people to use Siri in situations that may be socially awkward. Regardless, Siri is a company that was bought by Apple in 2010 and whose sole purpose was to create an artificial intelligence application head and shoulders above any other voice assisted AI. The release of the iPhone 4S on October 14 and future reviews will tell us whether or not Siri will give Apple a competitive advantage over its high tech Android rivals. Early reviews indicate that Siri may radically alter the smartphone landscape in the same way that Apple transformed it with a touch screen interface.