Siri breaks free and finally speaks Spanish
It took them a while!
One of the little publicized improvements announced by Apple earlier this week is the Spanish version for Siri. This would be news worth celebrating if it wasn’t for the fact that it took the company a year to unveil this feature.
Along with a Latin American version of the iTunes store released just last December and the framework to allow foreign forms of payment, Apple appears to be slow in taking advantage of the Spanish-speaking world and its potential of intercontinental word-of-mouth advertising. Not only in Latin America and Spain, but think of all the millions who speak Spanish in the United States, especially in states with high Latino populations such as Texas, California, New York and Florida
All in all, as Siri’s presence expands to more devices in more countries, its relevance and permanence in the market will be determined by one variant: proficiency. Siri’s most popular line for some still remains to be “Sorry, I did not get that,” a common claim by users across all initially tested languages.
Along with Spanish, Apple also just added Italian, Chinese and Korean to its repertoire. Hopefully, this will mean more “Si, Avengers 8pm” and not “Repita, por favor.” Also, she should understand some of our accented English. How about a Siri and Salma Hayek commercial? Easier on the eyes, and a much sexier accent, than John Malkovich.
(Photo: Flickr.com/MannyValdes)
