I have a (crappy) Android device. I googled a lot, read through forums and followed advice to find and download an appplication that would presumably replicate Siri’s functionality (there are several that claim this). I tried it for fun. It kind of works, in that it can recognise my spoken English, often times understand what I’m asking and provide a reasonably relevant answer. Ultimately, I never bother using it (and I’d love to be able to) because it is just extremely impractical. I would have to launch it whenever I need it by finding its icon and taping it (and waiting for it to start up). If I leave it on, my battery is dead by lunch time. My device is running FroYo (2.2).

Bottom line: Android probably has equivalent functionality, and I’m sure plenty of its (moderately) geeky users are using it regularly. The main point is, it is simply so unintuitive to get to and use to the point of being irrelevant. And second, even though the functionality IS available, nobody knows about it; certainly no Android maker (or carrier) is using it to advertise the platform (for obvious reasons; it is just a free, ad-supported third-party app, after all).

Therein lies the fundamental difference between the platform: one is done right, the other is done wrong.