If you can’t have it, create your own version of it – this seems to be the product philosophy of Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo. It is the only major carrier in Japan that stands without an iPhone. To make up for the absence, NTT DoCoMo has developed its awn Android app called Shabette Concier (talking concierge), which does almost everything that Siri does.
Apple hasn’t still gotten its Japanese language support in place. NTT DoCoMo’s Shabette Concier fills up the void by giving one access to recipes, train routes, maps, weather, dates, reminders etc. This app processes language from the cloud and therefore doesn’t rack up on your phone’s system. For search results, DoCoMo has tied up with Wikipedia. The only rant being that the app is currently available for Android 2.2 only.
The Japanese as always are pretty innovative. India, meanwhile has hardly gotten on the iPhone 4S bandwagon, although we would love to have a voice assistant that talks in Hindi at the very least.