Jobs rettete Siri aus den Fängen von US-Mobilfunkanbieter Verizon

In the fall of 2009, several months before Apple approached Siri, Verizon had signed a deal with the startup to make Siri a default app on all Android phones set to launch in the new year. When Apple swooped in to buy Siri, it insisted on making the assistant exclusive to Apple devices, and nixed the Verizon deal.

iOS-Assistent Siri hätte um Haaresbreite ein Softwareleben als Verizon-(Android-)App bestritten. Der Deal war bereits unterzeichnet bevor Jobs das Startup mit Geld aus der Portokasse (laut Medienberichten zwischen 150 und 250 Millionen US-Dollar) freikaufte.

Der Huffington-Post-Artikel beschreibt nicht den Ablauf der Verhandlungen. Es würde jedoch nicht verwundern wenn Steve Jobs eine ähnliche Attitüde wie bei der Übernahme vom Musikdienst Lala* an den Tag legte.

“I’m going to give you a number, Bill, and if you like it, let’s do it and just be done with this whole thing. Okay?” Bill agreed. […] Jobs passed a piece of paper to Nguyen and Bill nodded. The deal was done.

Apropos Jobs: Eine noch schönere Anekdote rund um Siri entstammt dem Buch ‚Inside Apple‚ von Adam Lashinsky (6.49 €; iTunes-Link).

Scott Forstall, Apple’s top executive for mobile software, was demonstrating Siri to the board when Jobs interrupted him. “Let me have the phone,” Jobs said, indicating that he wanted to try the personal assistant technology for himself. […]

“Be careful now,” he said to a man who had never been careful in his life. “I have it pretty much attuned to my voice.” Jobs, typically, wasn’t taking no for an answer. “Give me the phone,” he barked, prompting Forstall to walk around the table and hand over the device. […]

Then he turned existential, asking, “Are you a man or are you a woman?” Responded Siri: “I have not been assigned a gender, sir.” Laughter ensued, and with it some relief.

* Aubrey Johnson, der zu dieser Zeit im Team von Bill Nguyen arbeitete, teilte vor einigen Tagen diese Geschichte. Der Artikel findet sich mittlerweile aber nicht mehr in seinem Blog.