Siri does not give directions in Canada!

It will be available hopefully soon in 2012; they are actually negociating with Google to use their maps $$$$$$$ !

Stay tuned !

It was made clear at launch that Siri is beta and is not available in Canada yet.

On the contrary, it was anything but clear. In fact, it was intentionally ambiguous.

When it was apparent that all Siri references had been stripped from Apple.ca, Apple's response to the myriad of user and press inquiries was that "Siri would be included in iPhone 4s' shipped to Canada, but it was not advertised as a feature as it had not been localized for Canada".

When pushed for further clarification of exactly what this meant, none was given. Most people took this to mean that it had something to do with regional accents, or Quebec French etc. Even most trusted tech blogs and writers and at least one Apple employee in Cupertino, tweeted that Siri would work exactly as we saw in Forestall's demo for the majority of Canadians. It just might have some trouble with regional accents.

Clearly now, this is not the case and as The Globe & Mail pronounced, there is a "Canada-sized hole in Siri voice assistant".

This also leads to the question 'why Canada was excluded?' I can certainly understand The U.S., U.K., France etc getting it before Canada. Larger markets, denser populations. But Australia?? No offense to my several Aussie friends, but why was it launched in a country with less than 2/3 the population and market of Canada?

Pal,

Either you believe it or not, truth is SIRI will give indications in Canada as well as it does with the other Countries you named, AS SOON AS THEY GET AN AGREEMENT WITH GOOGLE TO USE THEIR MAP FEATURE FOR CANADA.

That's the only thing stopping it to happen NOW.

Stay tuned, you'll see it coming your way.

There have been many articles written on the absence of Siri in Canada, especially here as you can imagine. If it was as simple as negotiating a deal with google, I think at least one of them would have mentioned that, but this is the first time I've ever heard this excuse. Apple already has google maps incorporated into all their mobile products in Canada and elsewhere, why is it suddenly a sticking point?

Can you please give some links to the articles that confirm this?

Well, I only know of one journalist who spoke about it, but I do have confirmation from Apple, which I can't disclose here obvsiously, but the article is in French...

It's here:

http://technaute.cyberpresse.ca/nouvelles/mobilite/201110/11/01-4456216-iphone-4 s-siri-pleinement-fonctionnel-au-canada-tot-en-2012.php

Basically, what it says is this:

C'est que ces fonctions recourent à des services tiers, comme Yelp et Google Maps. Les ententes entre Apple et les dirigeants de ces services limitent pour le moment leur usage au territoire américain. Autrement dit, Siri au Canada est donc incomplet, ce qui déplaira à ceux qui attendent avec impatience d'en faire l'utilisation.

Which you can somewhat translate into:

Thing is that these features (Indications given by SIRI) work in conjunction with services owned by other companies, like Yelp and Google Maps. The agreements between Apple and the owners of those servives are limited (he said to the US) for now. Therefore, SIRI is not fully operationnal in Canada, which will displease the ones who were anxious to use it.

The journalist continues saying that Apple knows about it and is working hard to get things done. He speculates saying SIRI should be fully functionnal in Canada in the beginning of 2012.

That's pretty much it Pal.

Thanks.

I can read French as well but I take it with a grain of salt.

This article was written 3 days before the release of the phone and states that they made agreements with Google maps and Yelp to have Siri functional in the US only. However, we know that's not true. Siri was announced for the UK, Australia etc back at the press event. So, what else may be incorrect?

I find it very strange that out of all the hand wringing articles in major press publications over the omission of Siri in Canada, that one blog in French is the only one that offers any reason as to why that is. I've also come to know from watching far too many tech prognostications that when a firm uses an open-ended term like "next winter" that it often means "we hope by next winter, but don't bet the farm on it". In the meantime, Canadians are asked to shell out full price for a phone whose main feature is effectively crippled.

I perfectly understand your concern.

I don't know why no other journalist asked about it, but this French-speaking one; maybe we should ask them...

As you mentionned, this article was written 3 days before launch; so I guess the journalist did not get ALL the infos (about other countries).

As a matter of fact, SIRI is INDEED working in Canada, it's just not FULLY functionnal for the time being.

Some people are even more frustrated, for instance, the French speaking Canadians who can't even get SIRI to understand correctly what they say, on top of not getting voice indications...

So, I am with you Pal, it's not an interesting situation as is, but things will come better sooner or later, but it will come.

Meanwhile, arm yourself with patience.

☻

Well Siri works in the UK........but not for directions as stated. It politely tells you that it can only provide directions in the US! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Well, this confirms that:

SIRI'S INDICATIONS IS ONLY WORKING IN THE USA

FOR THE TIME BEING !!!

But it will change.

Thanks for the info Pal.

☺

I too just (cross) graded to the 4S with the notion that Siri was more than a Beta. I had no idea of its limitations up here. I am fairly knowledgable on all things Apple and relatatively current. I feel slightly slighted by Apple for letting the limit of this feature fly under the radar in Canada. I know we will get the Google Maps issue sorted and all will eventually be well but still...

Australia may have 2/3 the market of Canada, however we still have mote iphone users than Canada Australia- 1.207 million iPhones compared to Canada - 900,000 iPhones. Per capita Australia is one of the highest iPhone users I. The world. That includes the United states. Perhaps that is why Australia got Siri too. http://blog.nelso.com/2010/06/iphone-os-penetration-by-country.html?m=1

Interesting, but a few issues with that:

1) Even though Siri is "official" in Australia, its functionality there is exactly the same as in Canada. We too can do basics like read texts, make appointments, do web searches etc. but can't do anything location based as in the cool "Find me a pizza place near by" type examples we've all seen. Just like Australia (and everywhere else outside the US for that matter).

2) The report you quote is more than 1½ years old - a tech lifetime. Have the ratios changed? Maybe not, but this report came out months before the iPhone 4 was released which is the best selling smartphone in Canada. But most importantly...

3) If the ratios are the same, that only would make the case even stronger for proper implementation of full functionality in Canada. A significantly larger market with a lower penetration rate means a vastly enhanced opportunity to increase market share vs a smaller market already saturated.

I think the reason this became an issue in Canada is that when asked point blank about it, Apple's response was sufficiently (intentionally) ambiguous that even experienced tech bloggers were reporting the only thing Siri would be missing from the impressive demonstration we all saw was possible slight problems with regional accents.

All that said, we're trying to decipher the logic of Apple, and that's probably a fruitless exercise. 🙂

I agree completely with your inability to understand Apples logic here. However, look at the bright side. Australia is generally overlooked or gauged in the pocket by most technology companies based in the US. i.e Apple with the excuse that Australia is a smaller market or cost of imports jack up the cost we Australians have to pay for the hardware. Also so many apps are not available to us in Australia which are available in Canada. i.e Yelp! As you know the iPhone 4s uses this to look for that restaurant when you tell it you are hungry. This in mind, I'm fairly certain the fine people of Canada will surely see the full use of Siri LONG before us often ignored Aussies will. They say we can expect it in 2012! We were promised Vevo in Jan 2010..... still waiting. Siri no doubt will be the same.

Com'n. Don't you know by now that corporations and government use the same marketing techniques. Be vague, say how wonderful it is, dance around the issue, be vague,.get the money (or vote), and afterwards tell the public whats really going on.

But it's always good to get the money or vote first.

A excellent example of this is Microsoft with their products. They always sell the product and get the money first. Then they will work out the bugs afterwards..

However, the explanation given does make perfect sense, negoitations (with Google) do take time. However, it would be nice to see a corporation look afters its customers first by being honest, not falsely trying to push their base profit margin.

Microsoft adopted that philosophy and they are on the way down. I hope Apple doesn't stay with the same business model.