Apple Wins UK Advertising Standards Agency Case over Siri

Apple Inc. has won a case in the UK Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), over allegedly misleading Siri advertisements in Britain.

According to a report on Electronista, the complaint was brought about by an unidentified individual who said a Vodafone advertisement for the iPhone 4S (originally posted in October) was deceptive. Upon inquiry, Vodafone directed the ASA to Apple.

The advertisement's text reads:

"Simply ask Siri to help you send messages, set reminders or search for information. It can even use information from your iPhone -- such as your location, contacts and contact relationships -- to provide intelligent, personal assistance."

Apple was accused of providing false information and, principally, failing to point out that the location functions worked only in the US and not the UK.

Unfortunately, the ASA ruled in favour of Apple. The agency said that although Siri was unable to provide directions, traffic updates or suggestions for local businesses in the UK, it did use location data to provide weather forecasts. The agency said their belief was Siri acting as a guide to local businesses was not implicit in the ad and beyond average consumer expectations.

"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," the ASA states.

"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," the ad agency further added.

Meanwhile, Apple has already announced a media event on 7 March, where they are expected to announce the iPad 3 - with Siri. Therefore, expect Siri accompanying an iOS update (to iOS 5.1) for the iPad and, hopefully, this will also be a chance for Apple to revamp Siri functionality for the UK and non-US locations.

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