International Business

In a world characterized by dynamically evolving business trends, adaptability is key. Modern enterprises are seeing how changing market trends and customer demands can significantly impact the way they do business. To keep up, business and software strategies employed by companies constantly undergo modifications time and again.

Such is the case with utilizing mobile phones for businesses. Many business owners are now realizing that they cannot afford to miss out on the huge potential for success that mobile phones offer for companies - with accessibility, wide reach and ubiquitousness of these devices as major advantages. Over the years, mobile phones are advancing with new business-friendly applications and features mushrooming one after another practically within short periods of time.

Apple, a leading name in mobile device creation and innovation, unveils Siri, its latest technology in iOS 5 that is integrated into and currently works only on iPhone 4S. Siri essentially functions as an intelligent, voice-controlled personal assistant - only better.

Apple had itself venturing into Siri after it acquired Siri, Inc., the company behind the technology, in April 2010. However, Siri is not Apple's first venture into voice activated control software. It may be remembered how the VoiceOver program in Mac computers instantly became a sensation among users.

This time, Apple is dangling Siri as a cutting edge technology that does more than just memorization of set commands. The program is able to understand conversational language; thus users are much likely to use it as though they are speaking to another person.

As speech recognition assistant, Siri offers speech input and output. Simply put, users can speak to it, and it speaks back or responds quickly. Siri is also capable of understanding natural speech and asks questions whenever it requires more details to complete tasks. The program uses dual-core A5 chip in iPhone 4S, as well as Wi-Fi networks and 3G for rapid communication with Apple data centers.

Siri is able to carry out various commands involving other apps, such as messaging, calendar, mail, iPod or music library, contacts, weather and Safari, among others. Its supported languages include American English, French, British English and German, making it a viable tool for international business marketing.

On the business front, Siri on iPhone 4S is projected to fundamentally alter people's relationship with computer devices. In the truest Apple fashion, Siri is marketed as a personal assistant that offers better ease in doing quick mobile searches while allowing for administrative tasks to be completed on the run.

Siri is also expected to impact the way business website managers and owners market their products and services. With Apple as intermediary, Siri offers a way through which businesses are able to gather insights on customer preferences. Providers are able to assess how they can align their business and software strategies to improve visibility to consumers and understand better their target market's demographics.

Artificial Intelligence proponents are seeing how the commercialization of the Siri technology is ushering the era of handy and easily accessible consumer devices that work as collaborators instead of functioning as passive assistants.