GM Authority has learned that General Motors will implement Apple Siri Eyes-Free functionality into their Chevy Sonic and Spark models within 12-months:

Today, GM Authority has learned that The General will soon introduce Siri eyes-free integration in its vehicles and the first ones to get the integration will be the Chevrolet Spark and Sonic. While the automaker’s media representatives didn’t provide specific timing details, we were told that we should expect an announcement within the next 12 months.

While Apple displayed the GM badge at their iOS 6 announcement during the WWDC 2012 keynote, little was know when GM would implement the technology, and into which models.

Last week, Craig Mundie—Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer—told Forbes that he was not impressed with Siri, claiming that Microsoft has shipped similar technology in Windows Phone—via TellMe—for more than a year. He agreed with the reporter that much of Siri’s hype is “good marketing”, and that “Microsoft has had a similar capability in Windows Phones for, you know, more than a year.” From the interview:

Both the iPhone and Windows Phones have shipped with speech-to-text converters for years, and were able to handle predefined voice commands. What sets Siri apart from previous attempts is its ability to understand natural spoken language.

TechAU decided to test Craig Mundie’s claims that Siri is no different from TellMe outside of marketing. What their demonstration shows us is more than Siri’s ability to understand natural language, but also how it excels at speech-to-text conversions:

Out of four requests, Microsoft TellMe was not able to correctly convert the speech-to-text once, whereas Siri performed flawlessly.

While attempting to convince the U.S. Senate antitrust committee that Google is not a monopoly, Google chairman Eric Schmidt stated that Apple’s Siri could pose a serious threat to the company’s core business. From AppleInsider:

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman and former chief executive, admitted to the U.S. Senate antitrust subcommittee that Apple’s new Siri personal assistant technology is a “significant development” in search and could pose a threat to his company’s core business.

This should come as no surprise. The U.S. government is investigating whether Google classifies as a monopoly, so it makes sense for Google to defend itself with whatever they have available. As it stands, Siri is only available on a single device, so Google citing the fledgling technology comes across as an act of desperation to get the government off their back.

If Apple decides to implement Siri on more devices, and continues to pull results from non-Google sources like Yelp and Wolfram|Alpha, then Google may have a valid reason to be concerned. Considering that 2/3 of all mobile searches on Google come from iOS devices, having Siri pull the results from alternative sources could hit Google hard.

Last week, I wrote an article—”Siri Exclusivity Helps Sell iPhone 4S“—where I posit that Siri may have been offered exclusively for the iPhone 4S to help Apple test their infrastructure with lower user demand:

It may also be possible that Apple plans to roll out Siri to the iPhone 4 at a later date. For the initial rollout, Apple may have labelled Siri “Beta” and restricted its user base size solely to ensure their infrastructure could handle the demand. Once Apple establishes confidence in the service, they may very well open up Siri for the iPhone 4 and move it from beta to gold master.

This was just a guess, but the recent Siri outages and instability definitely support the “Beta” tag Apple applied to the new feature. We know that the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4th generation iOS devices can support Siri from a hardware perspective, and with the proper hacks, can also communicate with Apple’s servers. So the assumption that Siri requires the iPhone 4S hardware doesn’t hold water.

According to a rumor posted at Jailbreak Nation, Apple may be testing Siri on the iPhone 4:

Today, we have a very interesting bit of news, tipped to us by a source close to Apple. According to them, Apple is testing Siri on devices other than the iPhone 4S. The device specifically mentioned to us was the iPhone 4, but we can most likely assume that other devices are being tested as well. This means that we will potentially see a software update that allows Siri to run on older devices. Currently, it only runs on the iPhone 4S, but Apple has given employees access to a special software version that incorporates Siri’s features on to older devices. […]

At this point, we can only assume that Apple testing Siri on the iPhone 4 is a rumor, but it could be true. My only question is what will Apple use to differentiate the iPhone 4S from the iPhone 4 if Siri is made available for both devices in the future? Apple doesn’t market specs—they market experiences—and Siri is anything but a spec.

Since the launch of the iPhone 4S and the introduction of Siri, I have read many accusations that Apple has restricted Siri to the new model to help boost sales. Considering that much of the heavy lifting—like speech processing—is handled in the cloud, and the fact that Siri has been successfully ported to the iPhone 4, the assumed A5 hardware requirement started to fizzle. According to an article on AllThingsD, Siri’s iPhone 4S exclusivity really does look like a selling point:

Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu says his latest checks with industry and supply chain sources show broad sales strength across Apple’s entire iPhone portfolio, but most of all for the 4S. Evidently lots of folks who could be spending $99 on the iPhone 4 are opting to fork over another $100 for the 4S — and a lot of them are doing it for Siri.

“Despite global macroeconomic headwinds, Apple continues to defy conventional wisdom with a higher-end product mix,” Wu says. “Talking to industry sources, what’s driving the 4S is better than expected reception of its new Siri software.”

It may also be possible that Apple plans to roll out Siri to the iPhone 4 at a later date. For the initial rollout, Apple may have labelled Siri “Beta” and restricted its user base size solely to ensure their infrastructure could handle the demand. Once Apple establishes confidence in the service, they may very well open up Siri for the iPhone 4 and move it from beta to gold master.