At an Apple Special Event on October 4th, 2011, Siri was born. Sorry, not actually ‘born,’ more like, ‘announced,’ now becoming part of the iPhone.
A year earlier, in April 2010, Steve Jobs finally managed to buy the Siri app, supposedly for over $200 million, and brought the Siri co-founders Adam Cheyer, Dag Kittlaus, and Tom Gruber on board. What happened next sounds like a troubled childhood:
- Dag Kittlaus left Apple already in October 2011.
- Adam Cheyer stayed until September 2012.
- John Giannandrea, Google’s AI chief, joined Apple in April 2018.
- Tom Gruber, the last of the original Siri group, left Apple in July 2018.
- In February 2019, Bill Stasior, former head of Apple’s Siri division, left Apple.
Of so many fathers, the one who fought hard to bring her to Apple, Steve Jobs, died only one day after Siri’s announcement, on October 5th, 2011.
Estimated reading time: 31 minutes
Table of contents
- Siri Mentions in Apple Media Events since 2010/06
- WWDC 2010 – June 7–11, 2010
- Apple Special Event – March 2, 2011
- WWDC 2011 – June 6–10, 2011
- Apple Special Event – October 4, 2011
- Apple Special Event – March 7, 2012
- WWDC 2012 – June 11–15, 2012
- Apple Special Event – September 12, 2012
- Apple Special Event – October 23, 2012
- WWDC 2013 – June 10–14, 2013
- Apple Special Event – September 10, 2013
- Apple Special Event – October 22, 2013
- WWDC 2014 – June 2–6, 2014
- Apple Special Event – September 9, 2014
- Apple Special Event – October 16, 2014
- Apple Special Event – March 9, 2015
- WWDC 2015 – June 8-12, 2015
- Apple Special Event – September 9, 2015
- Apple Special Event – March 21, 2016
- WWDC 2016 – June 13-17, 2016
- Apple Special Event – September 7, 2016
- Apple Special Event – October 27, 2016
- WWDC 2017 – June 5–9, 2017
- Apple Special Event – September 12, 2017
- Apple Special Event – March 27, 2018
- WWDC 2018 – June 4–8, 2018
- Apple Special Event – September 12, 2018
- Apple Special Event – October 30, 2018
- Apple Special Event – March 25, 2019
- WWDC 2019 – June 3–7, 2019
- Apple Special Event – September 10, 2019
- Apple Special Event – December 2, 2019
- WWDC 2020 – June 22–26, 2020
- “Time flies.” – Apple Event – September 15, 2020
- “Hi Speed.” – Apple Event – October 13, 2020
- “One more thing.” – Apple Event – November 10, 2020
- “Spring loaded.” – Apple Event – April 20, 2021
- WWDC 2021 – June 7–11, 2021
- “California streaming.” – Apple Event – September 14, 2021
- “Unleashed.” – Apple Event – October 18, 2021
- “Peek performance.” – Apple Event – March 8, 2022
- WWDC 2022 – June 6–10, 2022
- “Far out.” – Apple Event – September 7, 2022
- Conclusion
Siri Mentions in Apple Media Events since 2010/06
If you’re curious about Siri’s role at Apple but have no idea how to measure the importance of a voice assistant to a secretive company like Apple, you get creative.
We decided to count the number of times Apple mentioned “Siri” at their Apple Media Events. Surprisingly this seems to correlate with Siri’s perceived performance here at smartenlight.
In this post, you will find:
- Word clouds based on the transcriptions of the Apple events,
- Links to the Apple event videos/keynotes,
- Siri, in the context in which she was mentioned, and
- General announcements of the event.
Pro-Tip: You can open the transcript with Chrome desktop browser on YouTube by clicking on the three dots underneath the video ‘…’ Search (CMD/CTRL+F) for the term you are interested in, e.g. ‘Siri’ and click on the results to directly jump to the section of the video (see screenshot below).
Please note: Some Apple Media Events are not online (indicated by -1 in the graph below). Filtering and normalization of the wordlists for the generation of Word Clouds could still be optimized, but hey, it’s Siri’s birthday!
WWDC 2010 – June 7–11, 2010
We are starting our journey a little earlier than Siri’s birthday. Of course, there are no Siri mentions here yet. Apple’s Siri app acquisition is a secret.
On June 7th, 2010, Steve Jobs announces the iPhone 4. According to our word cloud, ‘apps’ were also a big ‘thing.’ Steve’s favorite stat of the day: App Store revenue crossed one billion. One more thing: FaceTime.
Apple Special Event – March 2, 2011
We’re still before Siri. Steve Jobs reveals the iPad 2, despite being on medical leave.
WWDC 2011 – June 6–10, 2011
Apple announces Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5, iCloud, and iTunes Match.
Apple Special Event – October 4, 2011
Welcome, Siri! We found 38 mentions on your birthday. From now on, every time we see a heart in the word cloud, there will be more than 38 mentions!
Apple releases the iPhone 4s and a refreshed iPod Nano and iPod touch.
Apple Special Event – March 7, 2012
Only 3 Siri mentions. Tim Cook introduces iOS 5.1, a Japanese version of Siri, and the 3rd generation Apple TV and 3rd generation iPad.
WWDC 2012 – June 11–15, 2012
20 Siri mentions.
Apple announces Apple Maps, new models of the MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro with Retina. Apple also announces OS X Mountain Lion and iOS 6.
Apple Special Event – September 12, 2012
Apple announces the iPhone 5, made entirely of glass and aluminum, as the world’s thinnest smartphone.
Apple Special Event – October 23, 2012
No Siri mentions.
Tim Cook announces a new iPad mini, a fourth-generation iPad with a Retina display, a new iMac, and the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
WWDC 2013 – June 10–14, 2013
9 Siri Mentions.
Apple announces a redesigned Mac Pro and an updated MacBook Air, AirPort Time Capsule, and AirPort Extreme. Apple presents OS X Mavericks and iOS 7.
Apple Special Event – September 10, 2013
4 Siri Mentions.
Apple announces the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S, and iOS 7 for September.
Apple Special Event – October 22, 2013
Only 1 Siri Mention. She’s now on the iPad Air.
Apple announces the iPad Air, the second-generation iPad mini, updates to the MacBook Pro and OS X Mavericks.
WWDC 2014 – June 2–6, 2014
7 Siri Mentions.
Apple announces OS X Yosemite, iOS 8, and Swift, a new programming language for Mac and iOS.
Apple Special Event – September 9, 2014
Apple announces iPhone 6, 6 Plus, the Apple Watch, and Apple Pay.
Apple Special Event – October 16, 2014
No Siri mentions.
Apple announces the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, and an updated iMac with a 5K Retina Display.
Apple Special Event – March 9, 2015
Apple announces the release date and pricing for the Apple Watch.
WWDC 2015 – June 8-12, 2015
36 Siri Mentions.
Apple announces iOS 9, the next version of OS X called OS X El Capitan and Apple Music.
Apple Special Event – September 9, 2015
There were Siri mentions, but we cannot count them.
Apple announces watchOS 2, an Apple TV update with App Store, Siri Remote, and tvOS. Furthermore, iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, iPad Mini 4, Pad Pro with Apple Pencil, and iOS 9 coming in September.
Apple Special Event – March 21, 2016
11 Siri Mentions.
Apple announces a new iPad Pro, iPhone SE, and updates to the Apple Watch.
WWDC 2016 – June 13-17, 2016
52 Siri Mentions! A Heart!
Apple announces new versions of iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS.
Apple Special Event – September 7, 2016
11 Siri mentions. Apple managed to upload the transcription from the March Event into the September Event and almost tricked us. Let’s assume that it’s around 11 mentions since we cannot check.
Apple announces the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, the AirPods, and iOS 10.
Apple Special Event – October 27, 2016
16 Siri Mentions
Apple announces a new generation of the MacBook Pro.
WWDC 2017 – June 5–9, 2017
49 Siri Mentions! Apple announces the HomePod!
Apple announces a second-generation iPad Pro, updates to MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, and a new iMac Pro.
Apple Special Event – September 12, 2017
10 Siri Mentions.
Apple announces the Apple Watch Series 3, Apple TV 4K, iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, iPhone X, iOS 11, and watchOS 4.
Apple Special Event – March 27, 2018
No Siri mentions.
Apple announces iPad for education.
WWDC 2018 – June 4–8, 2018
55 Siri Mentions! Wor(l)d record!
Apple announces iOS 12, macOS Mojave, watchOS 5, and updates to tvOS.
Apple Special Event – September 12, 2018
8 Siri Mentions.
Apple announces the Apple Watch Series 4, iPhone XS and XS Max, and the iPhone XR.
Apple Special Event – October 30, 2018
4 Siri Mentions.
Apple announces a new MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and the third-generation iPad Pro.
Apple Special Event – March 25, 2019
2 Siri Mentions.
Apple announces Apple News+, Apple Card, Apple Arcade, and Apple TV+.
WWDC 2019 – June 3–7, 2019
24 Siri mentions.
Apple announces iOS 13, iPadOS, macOS Catalina, tvOS 13, watchOS 6, a redesigned Mac Pro, the Pro Display, and the new SwiftUI.
Apple Special Event – September 10, 2019
1 Siri mention, in a video, to play an Elton John album. Bummer.
Apple announces Apple TV+ updates, Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, and the 7th generation iPad.
Apple Special Event – December 2, 2019
Apple announces best App Store apps and games of 2019 following a private New York City event (9to5mac.com).
Apple honors the best apps and games of 2019.
WWDC 2020 – June 22–26, 2020
25 Siri mentions no heart. Siri now knows 20x more facts than just three years ago. She gets an all-new compact design that finally allows us to use the screen while talking to her. Siri can answer a broader range of questions. She can now send audio messages, provide cycling directions and share our ETA from Apple Maps. Siri can directly translate between many languages, with support for over 65 language pairs.
For an overview of the changes in the Home and Shortcuts app, please see our post: iOS 14 – A Siri, HomeKit, Home App, and Shortcuts Overview.
Apple announces iOS 14, iPadOS 14, watchOS 7, tvOS 14, macOS Big Sur, and the transition to Apple Silicon.
“Time flies.” – Apple Event – September 15, 2020
“Time flies.” No Siri mentions.
Apple announces the Apple Watch Series 6, a new iPad Air, and the release of iOS 14 the next day.
“Hi Speed.” – Apple Event – October 13, 2020
“Hi, Speed.” 28 Siri mentions. The HomePod gets a little brother in a spherical shape: the HomePod mini at $99. Apple announces upcoming support for other music services, like Amazon Music. A new intercom feature will connect HomePods with iPhones, iPads, and CarPlay.
Apple also announces iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max.
“One more thing.” – Apple Event – November 10, 2020
“One more thing.” No Siri mentions.
Apple presents the new Apple Silicon chip, the Apple M1. It will power new models of the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. macOS Big Sur will be released on November 12th.
“Spring loaded.” – Apple Event – April 20, 2021
“Spring loaded.” 5 Siri mentions. Most of them are about the new Siri Remote for the new Apple TV 4K and one, where Siri on an iPad Pro plays line judge on the tennis court.
Apple announces a new iPad Pro and iMac with the M1 processor, Apple TV 4K, AirTag, and a new purple color for iPhone 12 and 12 Mini.
WWDC 2021 – June 7–11, 2021
WWDC with 25 Siri mentions. Siri now supposedly learned enough from our user recordings and can slowly move to our devices with on-device recognition. New Siri voices can announce time-sensitive notifications and location-based reminders once we reach a location. Apple demonstrates that on-device speech recognition works faster than the cloud, so we have six more Siri mentions, but they left out “Hey Siri” by pressing the button (yes, that’s faster!).
HomePod / mini will control our Apple TV. HomeKit accessory makers can integrate Siri into their devices, and Apple designed it so that our Siri requests flow to the HomePod without going to any third-party servers. Siri Shortcuts will come to macOS.
Apple announces iOS 15, iPadOS 15, tvOS 15, watch OS 8 and macOS Monterey.
“California streaming.” – Apple Event – September 14, 2021
“California streaming” with 3 Siri mentions. Siri’s on-device speech recognition and improved speech-to-text with the A15 chip.
Apple announces a new iPad with the A13 chip, an iPad mini, the iPhone 13 /mini/Pro/Max with the A15 chip, and the Apple Watch Series 7.
“Unleashed.” – Apple Event – October 18, 2021
“Unleashed.” with 14 Siri mentions. Siri gets her own Apple Music subscription plan with new Apple curated playlists for hundreds of moods and activities. HomePod mini is now available in yellow, orange and blue.
The events main topic are Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors, which power the new redesigned MacBook Pro 14″ and 16″. No more touchbar, but with legacy ports like MagSafe, SDXC card reader and a new HDMI port. The audio system comes with studio quality mics and 6 speakers that support 3D Audio. The new AirPods 3 also support spatial audio, include Adaptive EQ that adjust music to our ears and have a longer battery life.
“Peek performance.” – Apple Event – March 8, 2022
“Peek performance.” 1 Siri mention. Siri supports on devices with an A12 Bionic chip or later offline requests and on device dictation.
Apple announces the iPhone SE with A15 Bionic chip and 5G. iPad Air 2022 is powered by the M1 chip and supports 5G.
Mac Studio powered by M1 Max/Ultra has double the performance of the Mac Pro and features 12 ports. The Studio Display includes a 12 Megapixel Ultra Wide camera with Center Stage, a studio quality three-mic array and 6 speakers.
Apple’s M1 Ultra basically includes two M1 Max processors connected with UltraFusion architecture.
WWDC 2022 – June 6–10, 2022
WWDC 2022 – 8 Siri mentions. Siri’s on device dictation supports now to move fluently between voice and touch, adds automatic punctuation and emojis. Over 15.000 apps work with Siri using SiriKit and Siri Shortcuts and currently require manual setup. A new App Intents API will allow for zero setup shortcuts. Siri can add steps to multistep routing in Apple Maps. We’re also reminded that we can ask Siri about sports players and teams. And, Siri gets a new UI in watchOS 9.
Apple introduces matter support (timestamp), a new smart home connectivity standard, also supported by other industry leaders. It will allow smart home devices to work together across platforms. HomeKit serves as foundation of this new standard. Apple emphasizes that they are not interested in collecting/monetizing accessories usage data. Apple’s Home app has been redesigned to be more reliable, especially for homes with many accessories. Rooms and Favorites are now integrated in the main tab of the app for better overview. New categories group and display the status of smart home devices on top of the app. Up to 4 cameras are displayed in a multi camera view, we can swipe for more. Tiles have been redesigned and new Home widgets can be added to the Lock Screen.
“Far out.” – Apple Event – September 7, 2022
“Far out.” One Siri mention during the “Dear Apple” (Apple Watch saves lives timestamp) introduction. Siri saves a high schooler from a bear attack.
“Dear Mr Cook,
I am a senior in high school. It was a typical summer night. I looked around the corner, and a bear was staring right at me. I go to grab my phone, but my pockets were empty. As I was trying to figure out what to do, I looked down and saw my watch. I held down the button and whispered, “Siri, call 911”. I am so grateful.”
He’s the only one who remains unidentified in the “Dear Apple” video, and Siri would too, if he had known that the “Siri” wake word is superfluous when activating Siri with a button.
Apple reveals the AirPods Pro second generation with new H2 chip for better sound. Personal Spatial Audio (which also works with the first generation AirPods Pro), lets us measure our ears with an iPhone camera for better spatial listening experience. Active noise cancelling is doubled compared to the first generation, and adaptive transparency filters out street noise in transparency mode. Touch control allows us to change the volume directly on the in-ear headphones. The charging case, which includes now a tiny speaker to search for it, allows for 30 hours of listening time.
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max reduces the notch containing the front webcam and Face ID sensor to a dynamic island. Powered by a new A16 Bionic chip it supports an always-on-display with optional widgets. The display is up to 2 times brighter in the sun, the camera includes a now a 48 Megapixel sensor.
iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are still based on the A15 Bionic chip from the iPhone 13 Pro and feature a a 12 Megapixel camera. The new Action Mode stabilizes video recordings. All iPhone 14 models support Emergency SOS via satellite when off the grid, 2 years for free.
The new Apple Watch Series 8 includes a temperature sensor. Crash detection can inform rescue services when a car crash is detected. The new low power mode supports up to 36 hours on a single charge. A new entry level Apple Watch SE comes with reduced feature set. The new outdoor Apple Watch Ultra protected by titanium housing and sapphire glas features a customizable action button, a second speaker and runs up to 36 hours from single charge.
Pro-Tip: With a desktop browser, you can open the transcript on YouTube by clicking on the three dots underneath the video ‘…’ Search (CMD/CTRL+F) for the term you are interested in, e.g. ‘Siri’ and click on the results to directly jump to the section of the video.
Conclusion
We’ve counted a total of 471 Siri mentions in 37 Apple Media Events we found online. This sounds like a lot, but let’s not forget that we’re looking at 11 years of Apple Events.
We look forward to a new year with many Siri mentions!
Happy Birthday, Siri!
P.S.: You can find more Siri posts here: Apple Siri
P.P.S: And here’s Apple’s official Siri page (excellent overview of Siri’s features)
