The iPhone 4S
Voice-recognition system Siri may not be available on the iPhone 4S in Ireland when it’s released on 28 October, according to a member of Apple’s online sales support, but may arrive sometime “down the line.”
Apple was contacted by someone who noticed that any mention of Siri was absent from the Irish Apple website.
A member of the sales support team emailed them back explaining that as Siri was in beta status, it would not be ready for full global deployment on the iPhone 4S’ release. They said that as a result, Siri would not be included in the iPhone 4S in Ireland when it arrives on 28 October.
However, the sales support team member said there is “certainly the possibility it will be supported for Ireland down the line,” but for now, it’s currently “exclusive to the US, France and Germany markets.”
The news will come as a blow to Irish customers, as Siri was a particularly impressive feature of the iPhone 4S.
Siri lets iPhone 4S owners use their voice to accomplish numerous tasks on the phone, such as send messages, schedule meetings, make phone calls and search for information. The system recognises the voice to carry out each query and responds back to the user.
Interestingly, US-based venture capitalist MG Siegler said that when he was previewing the phone, he noticed that while Siri knew what he was saying when the iPhone 4S was set to US English, it didn’t understand him when he set it to UK English. Perhaps configuring Siri to different accents across the globe is the reason for the gradual rollout?
We’ve reached out to an Apple press contact to confirm whether or not Siri will arrive in Ireland alongside the launch of the iPhone 4S.
UPDATE: Apple has now confirmed that Siri will be available on the iPhone 4S in Ireland, but as it is localised to UK, US and Australian English, it could have difficulties understanding accents that are not native to these regions.
