At an Apple Special Event, on the 4th of October 2011, Siri was born. Well, actually not ‘born’, more like, ‘announced’ 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 then, 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 the 5th of October 2011.
Siri Mentions in Apple Media Events since 2010/06
We are curious about Siri’s role within Apple. How to measure the importance of a voice assistant to a company like Apple?
We decided to count how often Apple mentions “Siri” at their Apple Media Events.
Please note: The available data is mostly processed automatically, which likely includes errors. Some Apple Media Events are not online (indicated by -1 in the graph below). The filtering and normalization of the wordlists for the generation of Word Clouds could still be optimized, but it’s Siri’s birthday!
2010/06 WWDC 2010 (June 7–11, 2010)
We are starting a bit earlier than Siri’s birthday. Of course, there are no Siri mentions here yet.
On the 7th of June 2010, Steve Jobs obviously announces an iPhone, the iPhone 4.
2011/03 Apple Special Event (March 2, 2011)
We’re still before Siri. Steve Jobs obviously reveals the iPad 2.
2011/06 WWDC 2011 (June 6–10, 2011)
Apple announces Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5, iCloud and iTunes Match.
2011/10 Apple Special Event (October 4, 2011)
Welcome, Siri! We found 38 mentions on your birthday. Every time we see a heart from now on in the word cloud, there will be more than 38 mentions!
Apple releases the iPhone 4s and a refreshed iPod Nano and iPod touch.
2012/03 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.
2012/06 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.
2012/09 Apple Special Event (September 12, 2012)
Apple announces the iPhone 5, made entirely of glass and aluminum as world’s thinnest smartphone.
2012/10 Apple Special Event (October 23, 2012)
No Siri Mentions.
Tim Cook announces a new iPad Mini, a fourth-generation iPad with Retina display, a new iMac, and the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display.
2013/06 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.
2013/09 Apple Special Event (September 10, 2013)
4 Siri Mentions.
Apple announces the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S and iOS 7 for September.
2013/10 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.
2014/06 WWDC 2014 (June 2–6, 2014)
7 Siri Mentions.
Apple announces OS X Yosemite, iOS 8, and a new programming language for Mac and iOS called Swift.
2014/09 Apple Special Event (September 9, 2014)
Apple announces iPhone 6, 6 Plus, the Apple Watch, and Apple Pay.
2014/10 Apple Special Event (October 16, 2014)
No Siri mention.
Apple announces the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, and an updated iMac with a 5K Retina Display.
2015/03 Apple Special Event (March 9, 2015)
Apple announces the release date and pricing for the Apple Watch.
2015/06 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.
2015/09 Apple Special Event (September 9, 2015)
There were definitely 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.
2016/03 Apple Special Event (March 21, 2016)
11 Siri Mentions.
Apple announces a new iPad Pro, iPhone SE, and updates to the Apple Watch.
2016/06 WWDC 2016 (June 13-17, 2016)
52 Siri Mentions! A Heart!
Apple announces new versions of iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS.
2016/09 Apple Special Event (September 7, 2016)
11 Siri Mentions, in the March Event. Apple managed to upload the transcription from the March Event here 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.
2016/10 Apple Special Event (October 27, 2016)
16 Siri Mentions
Apple announces a new generation of the MacBook Pro.
2017/06 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.
2017/09 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.
2018/03 Apple Special Event (March 27, 2018)
No Siri Mentions.
Apple announces iPad for education.
2018/06 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.
2018/09 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.
2018/10 Apple Special Event (October 30, 2018)
4 Siri Mentions.
Apple announces a new MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and the third-generation iPad Pro.
2019/03 Apple Special Event (March 25, 2019)
2 Siri Mentions.
Apple announces Apple News+, Apple Card, Apple Arcade and Apple TV+.
2019/06 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.
2019/09 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, iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, and the 7th generation iPad.
Conclusion
With missing events and missing transcriptions, we cannot count. Let’s not forget, that for these events, there is also no accessibility, which is becoming increasingly important, hopefully not only in some Apple Event word clouds. We really hope that Apple improves here!
We counted a total score of 361 Siri mentions in the 23 Apple Media Event Keynotes we found online, including the 1 from the last event. Apple tricked us by copying the transcript of the Apple March Event 2016 into the Apple Special Event on September 7, 2016. So, in total, we couldn’t find 5 Apple Events. As the overall quality of auto-transcribed events could definitely be better, please take these numbers only as indicators.
They indicate that it’s getting a little silent on the Siri front. The latest features of an extended SiriKit for developers still need to find their way into the many apps. We still need to see how many Apple fans will look into the updated Shortcuts app to create their own voice-controlled automations. Hopefully many!
We’ll extend this post with new findings and will also include all Siri and Siri-related features, like language support, HomeKit history, and the Shortcuts app.
But for now, it’s time to say
Happy Birthday, Siri!
We count (on) you!
