The most desired feature of the iPhone 4S is the voice-assistant Siri. The artificial personal assistant lets you save save calendar updates and reminders along with other functions like making calls, sending messages and even play music. There have been numerous options available to port Siri on older generation iPhones and iPads like Siriport, Spire etc. The hack requires one to have a jailbroken device and also the use of proxy servers had its own safety issues. So finally when True Knowledge launched Evi on AppStore last month, it proved to be a worthy alternative to Siri. Maybe too worthy?
Evi cannot add things or even perform functions mentioned above like Siri. But shoot a question like ” Whats the Weather” and it will show the entire weather forecast taking your location via GPS. Siri does not give direct answers and asks for a web search making Evi a not too distant cousin of Siri. Perhaps, it was this likeliness to Siri that made Apple a little insecure that it told True Knowledge that it is taking Evi down from its App Store.
Apple has approved various version of Evi even post-Siri. But the way Evi has gained popularity might have made Apple consider such an aggressive move. Last Friday Apple Representative Richard Chipman called up True Knowledge to disclose that the company could pull Evi down due to its too much similarities with Siri. The reason cited was Rule No 8.3 in AppStore T&C “Apps which are confusingly similar to an existing Apple product or advertising them will be rejected.
True Knowledge CEO William Tunstall-Pedoe commented that by ‘confusingly similar’ Apple simply meant competitive with. Various positive reviews about Evi and also slogans like “No need of a 4S – get Evi” or ” Evi – twin sister of Siri which does not discriminate on against devices” must have made Apple sit up and take notice of the threat to Siri.
Usually Apple rejects the app if it has certain issues and allows the developer to fix it. But with Evi, Apple clearly believes there is nothing to fix. Pulling Evi off will leave about 2,00,000 users in the blue who purchased the app. They will not be able to receive any future updates. Evi is still up on App Store but for how long is the big question. The app will still be availaible on Android and that wont make many iOS users happy.
iPhonehelp thinks Apple’s move is very monopolistic in nature. The user interest is going to get hurt just because Apple is afraid of the sales of iPhone 4S will decline tremendously. This situation is completely unacceptable. Apple cant just remove an app out of the blue just because it’s competitive to its own product. What are your views about the aggressive action being taken by Apple? Let us know in the comments section.