Way back in the mists of 2009, before Siri was even a twinkle in Apple’s eye, US carrier Verizon was planning to add the app to all of its Android smartphones. Sadly, that didn’t happen.
Siri was destined to be a crowning glory of its Android-toting handsets: Verizon had signed a contract with the start-up that developed it, spent thousands on producing advertisements, and generally pinned its hopes of future Droid success to the software. Then, following a brief conversation between Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus and Steve Jobs, Apple bought out the startup and unceremoniously ruined Verizon’s plans.
That story is told in some detail by the Huffington Post, in a long feature called Siri Rises. It traces the existence of the iOS app from its beginnings at a US defence department to the present day — and even takes a peek at what the future holds. On that point though, it’s not really clear what the future of Siri is, other than the software becoming incrementally more intelligent. Still, whatever happens, it looks like it will have a happier ending then Verizon’s poor tale. [Huffington Post via Cult of Mac via The Verge]