This Week in Tech News – Apple gains market share in the second quarter, the human voice of Siri is revealed and Apple acquires Cue, a personal assistant app.
Apple gains mobile market share
The quarterly sales results for smartphones have been released by ComScore and Apple has gained ground on market leader Android users. The first quarter of the year Android led the market with 52.4% of the sales while Apple only had 39.2%. The second quarter, Android dropped 0.8% and Apple gained 1.5% in sales. Behind the two majority sales leaders is Blackberry with 4.0% of sales and Microsoft with 3.2%.
Voice of Siri Revealed
The origin of the voice of Apple’s voice assistant, Siri, has been revealed as voice over artist, Susan Bennett. Bennett has been doing voice over work for over 40 years and live in suburban Atlanta. Even though Apple has not confirmed the discovery, forensics experts report that Susan and Siri voices are 100 percent identical. Bennett revealed that in 2005, she spoke nonsensical phrases and sentences so software engineers could create the Siri speech database.
Startup Company, Cue, Purchased by Apple
Startup company, Cue (formerly Greplin), is reportedly being purchased by Apple for between $50 and $60 million. Cue had announced on Tuesday that the service was shutting down and would no longer be available. Cue premium subscribers will receive appropriate refunds. It is unsure at this time what Cue will do for the current personal voice assistant, Siri, but this acquisition could only serve to help bolster Apple’s software arsenal.
