Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) hired a former Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) executive, William Stasior, to head its Siri personal assistant division.
AllThingsD reported on Monday that Stasior, a prominent search technologist, will be in charge of Siri, hinting at the iPhone maker’s plan to compete aggressively in the search business. The move will make the rivalry between Google, the current market leader in the segment, and Apple, even fiercer, not to forget Apple recently ditch Google Maps for its own mapping solution with iOS 6.
Stasior has been in charge of Amazon’s A9 search technology and had also worked at the search engine AltaVista. Stasior a MIT PhD, and also taught there, as well as having worked at Oracle and Netcentives. He joined Amazon in 2003 as its director of search and navigation.
Stasior’s resume says “A9 provides the core search service, as well as advertising services, and image recognition technologies to Amazon.com and other websites”.
Stasior, who co-founded search engine AltaVista, could also strengthen “Apple’s search and search advertising technology in the wake of its increasing competition with Google”, said a report from AllThingsD. Earlier this month, a report revealed that late Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, considered removing Google search from iOS in response to Google’s foray into the smartphone market with its Android operating system.
However, eventually the management decided otherwise as the move could have resulted in upsetting the users. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has lost a few of its key executives from its Siri team, since it purchased the voice-driven technology in 2010. Dag Kittlaus, co-founder and CEO of Siri, left Apple after the iPhone 4S launch last October, while Adam Cheyer, who also co-founded Siri, left Apple recently. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) acquired Siri in 2010, and has since integrated the feature into its latest iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch ranges.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Tim Cook gave an interview at the All Things D conference earlier this year, where he teased that Siri has “unbelievable potential”. “It’s one of the most popular features of our most popular phone. But there’s more that it can do,” said Cook. “And we have a lot of people working on this. And I think you’ll be really pleased with some of the things that you’ll see in the coming months”.
