Maps and Local Search for Siri Coming in 2012

One of the big let downs of the iPhone 4S launch was that for those of you out of the US, Siri has even more limited capabilities. In our Siri Review we noted that Apple [AAPL] had pulled out support for maps, directions and business searches. Although we have been told it’s coming, we hadn’t been told if that would be weeks or months. It turns out that it’s still several months away:

Maps and local search support will be available in additional countries in 2012.

As you can see in the image above, I asked where the nearest Pizza Hut was and then got the answer saying I couldn’t do the search.

We don’t know when Siri will be updated for UK, Aus, German or French users (and other languages) but what we hope for are regular updates that will see features improved over time.

Siri does have other limitations as well but overall, still quite an impressive addition considering it’s still Beta.

The Siri FAQ also covers other questions such as what data Apple collect about you when using Siri and how it uses that data to form a profile for you so that it can adapt to your accent.

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