Snippet: The Inside Story of Siri’s Origins ☇

The Huffington Post’s Bianca Bosker shares a rather lengthy and interesting article discussing the origins of Siri, including an early Department of Defense project, independent startup, and almost becoming a hallmark feature on Android-based devices on Verizon (via The Loop):

Verizon thought so, too. In the fall of 2009, several months before Apple approached Siri, Verizon had signed a deal with the startup to make Siri a default app on all Android phones set to launch in the new year. When Apple swooped in to buy Siri, it insisted on making the assistant exclusive to Apple devices, and nixed the Verizon deal. In the process, it narrowly avoided seeing Siri become a selling point for smartphones powered by its biggest rival, Google. (Somewhere in the vaults of the wireless giant, there are unreleased commercials touting Siri as an Android add-on.)