Apple Has No Plans to Run Siri on Older iOS Devices

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We earlier reported that Apple might be working on a version of its popular Siri speech-powered personal assistant for older iOS devices. But a statement from Apple tech support says its Engineering team has no plans to have Siri support on older devices.

Our staff reporter Mariella Moon noted, earlier this week, that Apple may be working on Siri support on older Apple iOS devices, particularly the iPhone 4. There have also been reports of hackers and tweakers being able to run Siri on jailbroken iPhone 4 and 3GS units, as reported by Chris Smith. However, Apple has been mum about whether it plans to have Siri support in older iDevices. Today, we learn from a source that the company does not have plans to run Siri on devices other than the iPhone 4S, at least for now.

Michael Steeber reports on his Tumblr account that Apple tech support has given word that its Engineering team is not planning to have Siri support on older iDevices. An iOS app developer has suggested that Apple consider adding a special Siri build for older devices, so that hackers will not have to instal Siri illegally:

Bug Title: Special Siri Build of iOS

iPhone 4 Users and iPod touch 4th generation users pay a fee of 19.99 to upgrade to a ‘special’ build of iOS 5.0.1 with Siri Final in it, (To avoid hackers hacking Siri onto non 4S devices illegally) **Many iPhone 4 Users and iPod touch 4th generation Users will pay for this special iOS build (5.0.1) which will enable Siri for a fee of $19.99 US dollars.

The response, however, is not so positive.

Engineering has provided the following feedback regarding this issue:
Siri only works on iPhone 4S and we currently have no plans to support older devices.

Of course, this is not an official media statement by Apple. But coming from technical support, and supposedly the company’s engineering department, this can be construed as Apple’s official stand on Siri device support of this time. However, Siri had been a premium app available for all iPhone models prior to Apple’s acquisition of the company and inclusion into iOS5 as an iPhone 4S exclusive. Apple is likely making Siri an iPhone 4S exclusive to encourage users to upgrade to the new hardware The company has been known to change their minds about their technologies and decisions before, though, so other iDevice users might still have hope.