Apple sued over Siri shortcomings

A New York man has filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming its advertising of the Siri voice assistant misled consumers about the speed and accuracy of the system.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the man, Frank M Fazio, filed the lawsuit in federal court in California, after buying an iPhone 4S in November and finding Siri was far less responsive in real life than on TV.

"Promptly after the purchase of his iPhone 4S, [Fazio] realised that Siri was not performing as advertised,” the complaint reads.

"For instance, when [Fazio] asked Siri for directions to a certain place, or to locate a store, Siri either did not understand what [Fazio] was asking, or, after a very long wait time, responded with the wrong answer.”

Apple hasn’t commented on the charge, although its defence will surely rest on the fact that Siri is a beta release, issued in a semi-completed state because the only way to improve it further was to expose it to lots of different voices.

You can read the whole complaint by following the WSJ link above.

Do you think Apple has overpromised on Siri? Or was the complainant reading too much into the advertisements? Post your comments below.