Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has made slight improvements in its version of Siri for iOS6, in the view of Gene Munster and other analysts at Piper Jaffray. In their second test of the feature, they believed that its biggest strength was in locating local businesses and in following OS commands.
However analysts found that Siri appears to be weak at locating general information and finding commerce information. They also noticed that Siri relied on Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) only 30 percent of the time in iOS6, compared to 60 percent of the time in the previous version of the feature. They believe that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s removal of Google Maps from iOS6 was the reason for the change.
In his report to investors today, Munster lists some vital statistics about their tests on Siri. They found that the feature understood about 91 percent of their queries “in a quiet environment,” although Siri only got 89 percent of them in iOS5. Siri also answered 77 percent of their questions correctly, compared to just 76 percent in the version included with iOS5.
Munster also compared Siri with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Now, which is a similar feature available on Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Android phones. He found that Google Now is strong in navigation and information, although like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Siri, Google Now is also weak in commerce. He expects Apple to integrate with Groupon, LivingSocial and other local deals companies, as well as online commerce companies to improve Siri’s commerce capabilities in future models.
Munster’s report also showed that overall, Siri responded to more queries in local, commerce and commands correctly than Google Now did, although Google Now beat out Siri in navigation and information
