New iPhone Siri Ads Feature Samuel L. Jackson, Zooey Deschanel (VIDEO)
New iPhone Siri ads have been commissioned by Apple, and the two new commercials shown so far feature Samuel L. Jackson and "New Girl" star Zooey Deschanel.
The new iPhone Siri ads are a break from the norm for Apple, who usually chooses a simplistic format for their commercials. Previous adaptations of Siri commercials have displayed only the device, or used actors playing regular folks— an easy way to show the usefulness of the voice recognition assistant in everyday life.
This time, however, the Siri commercials feature Samuel L. Jackson, Hollywood's resident bad boy, preparing for a date night. Siri provides answers to simple queries like where to get organic mushrooms, how many ounces are in a cup, and reminders.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
In the ad featuring a quirky and upbeat Deschanel, she, too wants simplistic tasks completed like getting tomato soup delivered and a reminder to clean up. With the lack of previous Siri feats seen in commercials like assisting a blind woman or helping someone while jogging, many are wondering just why Apple decided to use celebrities.
One theory could be the lack of excitement surrounding the voice recognition software itself. Although millions of iPhone 4S models were sold across the world since the phone's debut in October, many have since become disillusioned with Siri now that they have it.
"After the initial rush of people using [Siri] after the iPhone 4S was introduced, there seems to have been a significant falloff in usage," Pund-IT Principal Analyst Charles King told eWEEK. "But I believe that may be due to the impact of Siri on users' data plans, due to voice recognition processing being carried out at the datacenter, then pinged back to the phone."
With carriers like Verizon and AT&T giving users limited data usage per month, less use of Siri isn't natural, it's the frugal thing to do.
Another theory behind the celebrity endorsements is Apple's position in the market. Google will be debuting their Google Assistant soon, which could take away some of the luster surrounding the iPhone 4S. In addition, Apple shares fell from $644 down to $580 following downgrades from select analysts, who allege that carriers may not want to continue carrying the iPhone because of expenses.
The showing of Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint title cards in the commercials dispute that fact, and no carrier has announced any inkling of discontinuing carrying the iPhone, despite the expense.
