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Apple didn’t mislead UK consumers over what Siri would be capable of when it arrived over here, it was our stupid fault for watching US announcements and getting too excited over features we were never going to get.
That’s what the Advertising Standards Authority had to say on the matter, following a complaint made over a Vodafone advert for Apple’s new iPhone 4S and its much talked about virtual assistant.
The ASA found that the Apple ad, which was supplied to Vodafone by the tech giant, made no mention of the Siri features that would be cut from the UK version of the app, with the ASA saying the “average consumer” in the UK wouldn’t be expecting to find features mentioned during the high-profile US launch event.
Which seems a little unfair, given how globally atuned we all are today. Here’s the ASA’s text on the issue:
“We considered that some consumers may have had prior knowledge of what Siri was reportedly able to do in the US and, with this knowledge, might read into the ad that Siri users in the UK would benefit from similar maps-based functionality. However we did not consider that these consumers represented the average consumer in the UK and, because the ad in itself had not explicitly or implicitly made such claims, we concluded that the ad was not misleading.”
So the ad wasn’t misleading, it was just the way the world reported the US version’s features as gospel. The whole world is wrong, not Apple. [ASA via The Register]
can’t really see any fault here from Apple… are they going to *not* advertise US features to a US market because they aren’t available globally? That would be ridiculous. If they were showing those ads on their UK website, on UK TV or in UK print media, then fair enough – that’s not cool – but consumers have a responsibility to not be idiots.
no, but if they’re putting adverts or announcements online it should be clear if the reported features are region specific.
partly it’s the consumers fault for not going out of they’re way to ensure the features they’re interested in are available to them, but the blame also lies with Apple, they knew people across the world will suck up any and all apple based news, and the misrepresented what Siri was capable of by not saying certain features are US only.
in every advertisement it had the small print that certain features would be region specific – but aside from that, the US only features were not on any page that started http://www.apple.com/uk
They also have a no questions asked 14 day return policy with no restocking fee.
Would people have the same issues with, let’s say netflix? They issue press releases and have online advertising all about their amazing collection of material – but on the UK version there is non of that stuff – angry at them too?
I’d have to say the ASA made the right call on this, If the ad didn’t mention the features, then the advertiser is not at fault. I am fairly sure that Apple said Siri would be somewhat gimped outside the US initially. Maybe this guy was reading to much Giz US and not enough Giz UK.
Just avoid watching the adverts in that way.
Apple are never wrong are they? After watching the UK adverts for the iPhone 4S I was left with the distinct impression that Siri could do anything and everything functionality wise, and much much more!
Specifics of the UK/US adverts aside, I think an advert’s tone and things which are implied or suggested should also be looked into by the ASA. The advert clearly implies Siri can do anything you ask, within the confines of the iPhone’s functionality.
“After watching the UK adverts for the iPhone 4S I was left with the distinct impression that Siri could do anything and everything functionality wise, and much much more!”
See, I was left the distinct impression that it could do anything and everything, functionality wise, that was shown in the UK advert. Which it can.