When Apple acquired voice-recognition application Siri, it was fairly clear what Apple had up its sleeve. Same with Apple’s purchase of fingerprint scanner developer Authentec. Apple recently acquired motion-control-specialist PrimeSense, and we already know what Apple will likely do with those resources. But when news broke last night that Apple had acquired social data firm Topsy, the answer to what Apple would do with those resources was not so clear. Perhaps they’ll use the technology to improve iAd, Siri, big data or other social apps. Maybe it is for an entirely new product. What do you think? Tell us in the poll above or in the comments below.
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Apple TV Social media integration
they wanna improve the AppStore experience
there might be a small chance they’d use their pattern recognition to find out what people use Siri for and making it more useful?
for blacklisting journalists..
I would hope it is used for better matching for iTunes match. Why 1-2 songs on an album don’t match when the others do is ridiculous
Not sure but I bet Angela Ahrends knows
It’s not about advertising at all, it’s about improving Siri results to include real-time news and information.
Imagine an Apple TV with a much improved built in Kinekt like technology and a much improved Siri, that also works in tandem with the iWatch, which I beliebe Apple will be releasing before the TV or at least along side the TV.
I think Apple should buy Twitter.
Twitter just went public and has a market cap of $20+ billion. Why would Apple buy them now?
Only one logical explanation: Ping will be back with a vengeance!!
I would hope it is used to better match songs in iTunes Match. How come It get 8/10 songs matched for an album…Why/How does it not match the remaining two?
To improve user experiece across their own platforms, devices and software – take a peak at the latest book from Joe Pine.
I also think Apple is going this way. Mostly because hardware innovation is getting harder, especially with the iPhone, as the design is now just minor refinements away from perfection. But now with Topsy, Apple can use the data to get real time feedback from customers, so that they can move a rapid software release. Think two major updates a calendar year. This would clearly boost the hardware, software, services harmony that the executive team has been reminding us about.
I think this is to do with offering more PERSONAL relevance to any number of services offered on the Apple platform. Twitter has been integrated into iOS for ages now, but there has never been any link to your social networking activities and therefore the results you may get from Siri, iTunes, App store etc.
I think it is to get a deeper understanding of you on a personal level (who do you follow, what do you tweet, what trends do you search for) and also on a demographic level.
After all, Siri is designed to be a “personal” assistant, however he/she is currently merely a “general” assistant…in my opinion :-)