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Apple
iPhone 4S, with Siri showing front and center
While the world waited with bated breath on the release of a brand new iPhone 5, Apple's anti-climactic announcement yesterday of the iPhone 4S not only took the wind out of a lot of sails, it also made the company's naming choice for its new intelligent personal assistant look a little culturally ignorant.
You see, in Japan, where Siri isn't even going to be available when the iPhone 4S goes on sale there Oct.14, the word sounds a lot like "shiri" — which means buttocks.
As you can imagine, that brought on a lot of rump shaking jokes, all at Apple's expense.
The Wall Street Journal observed that "the kanji character 尻 soon cropped up below Siri as a trending topic on Twitter here. In the early hours after the announcement, one local Twitter wag user pointed out that when typing “Siri” into Google, the search engine asked 'Did you mean: 尻?'"
The Next Web has a screenshot of a Google search, with the kanji characters, asking if the searcher was looking for "bottom."
On Twitter, a search for "Siri buttocks" shows that a lot of people are finding amusement about the coincidence.
Tweet reflecting the general amusement behind Apple's naming of its new virtual personal assistant
It's a word that makes toddlers giggle and grown people chuckle, so it's no wonder that if anything is giving Apple traction, it's that. But it's kind of sad that it's the joke that is getting all the attention and not the virtual personal assistant, which was one of the few highlights in Tuesday's presentation.
Here's a summary from the press release about the feature's potential:
iPhone 4S also introduces Siri, an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. Siri understands context allowing you to speak naturally when you ask it questions, for example, if you ask “Will I need an umbrella this weekend?” it understands you are looking for a weather forecast. Siri is also smart about using the personal information you allow it to access, for example, if you tell Siri “Remind me to call Mom when I get home” it can find “Mom” in your address book, or ask Siri “What’s the traffic like around here?” and it can figure out where “here” is based on your current location. Siri helps you make calls, send text messages or email, schedule meetings and reminders, make notes, search the Internet, find local businesses, get directions and more. You can also get answers, find facts and even perform complex calculations just by asking.
We're not quite at the Skynet stage yet, but this is definitely one step closer on a mass scale.
Apple has had some experience with poor naming choices. Remember the hubbub with the iPad when it first came out?
It's worked out now, but the initial derision and association with feminine hygiene products stuck for a little bit. Maybe after the initial round of jokes, this will flame out, too. But hopefully, if the assistant ever gets to iPhones in Japan, Apple will reconsider naming it something else so the Japanese won't be calling their phone "butt" all the time.
Of course, plenty of Westerners find Japanese names of products equally amusing, given their English translation. We've seen "Cock Soup," "Cream Collon," and "Baby Maker" DVDs. There's even a whole site dedicated to the mangling of the English language in Japanese: Engrish.com.
But all kidding aside, Apple would be doing itself a favor if it did change the name to something more suitable; after all, the iPhone is the best selling phone in Japan, commanding 72 percent of the country's smartphone market by March 2010.
More stories:
- Meet Siri, your personal iPhone assistant
- Live coverage: Apple unveils the iPhone 4S
- Apple's iOS 5 available on Oct. 12, brings 200 new features
Check out Technolog on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the Google+ stream.
Leave a Comment:
the name is fitting since most who bite the apple are "siri" hats anyway... ;-)
In other languages siri means crabs. So in other words my butt has crabs.
duly noted... maybe thats why appleheads walk around like they have a stick up their siri...we must research this further...
I bought an I-pad and regretted it. Again. Every time I have bought an Apple product I have been disappointed not with the ease and richness of the gadget but with the way Apple tries to monopolize and direct the user into only Apple. For example I-tunes. They first did this with hardware, then firmware and software and now with interactivity.
What a marketing fiasco for Apple. Again. Makes me remember Sanka coffee which means butt coffee in some Spanish and Papiamento (Caribbean and African) speaking communities.
Good thing they didn't call it "unchi".
Or maybe that's the next logical step after "shiri"?
What is it with translations into Japanese? As I remember there was a spinoff from the old "Happy Days" TV show called "Joni Loves Chachi" with Chachi being the name of the character played by Ralph Macchio (pre-Karate Kid). One of the reasons they pulled it was supposedly the word "Chachi" translates in Japanese as "penis." Thus, Joni loves penis.
Apple is lucky they were only the butt of the joke, they could have been much worse off.
You would think that a multi-national company would have someone to look for stupid translation errors. Remember the Nova, and originally Chevy could not any in S. America, until they figured out that No Va means it doesn't go in Spanish.
Well, I guess Apple will be naming the black Apple 5, "boy" and the white one "honkey" , get some real sales that way.... LOL :D
R.I.P. Mr Jobs... all the crap talking was in good fun...in reality Apple has done more for the world than we will ever come to realize. God Speed.
Adds a whole new meaning to "talking out your ass".
http://www.smosh.com/PC/smosh-pit/photos/21-worst-food-names-ever
Thanks for the link. LMAO
Naw, the worst ever name was the Chevy "No va" which was made in Mexico. It means "No Go."
That's a common myth, but no, the Chevy Nova did quite well in Spanish-speaking countries. After all, the word for an exploding star is the same in English as in Spanish: "Nova." There's a Mexican gasoline brand, Nova.
Indeed, they are pronounced differently. "Nova," as in an exploding star, has a fricative "v." "No va," as in "do not go," has a hard "b." To someone who doesn't speak Spanish, they may sound the same, but to a speaker of Spanish, they are quite distinct. A similar example in English would be the word "carpet" compared to the two-word phrase, "car pet." We don't pronounce them the same way and speakers of English wouldn't confuse the two.
Also, that's just not the way you say it in Spanish. That is, you don't say, "It doesn't go," in Spanish. Instead, you say, "It doesn't function." The verb "ir" does mean "to go" in Spanish, but it doesn't refer to functionality in Spanish the way "go" does in English. Clocks don't "run" in Spanish ("correr")...they "walk" ("andar").
Actually, the worst name ever was that of the Mitsubishi Pajero which had to be changed to Mitsubishi Montero in some spanish speaking countries.
"Siri" also means "Secret" in Swahili
Good way to get slapped in a bar, "Excuse me miss, could I borrow you siri for a few minutes please?"
Siri is also short for the name Sirisha in India, one of the most populous nations on Earth. Something tells me that this might be one of their target audiences.
This is not the first time something like this has happened. The Chevy Nova was renamed 'Caribe' in Latin America because 'No va' in Spanish means, it doesn't work.
Actually, "va" means "go" in Spanish, so the translation for "No va" is "it doesn't go". Still not good news when you're trying to sell a car, though. (I first heard about that one from my high school Spanish teacher).
Translation faux passes also happen the other way around. I remember seeing Colon brand dish soap for sale in a supermarket in Spain.
Colon in spanish has the same meaning as in english. I´d say you saw a brand with the accent indicator on the second "o". i.e.: Colón
Colón is the surname in spanish of Christopher Columbus (Cristobal Colón). Latin America is riddled with towns, cities, shops, companies and so forth called Colón.
CRM, you're right. There was an accent on the second "o".
SIRI !!!
It's one way of telling Android/RIM/WP7 handset makers to "GET BEHIND MY ASS" :).
Again Apple is playing it smart by choosing a word that will go viral and give iPhone 4S a free publicity. Remember the iPhone 4 antennagate? If a more serious "antennagate" (gone viral) propelled iPhone 4 to a blockbuster status, wait for "siri" to give the competition an "ass-busting" blow out. :-)
ya, that's what happened.
My second language is the Japanese language and "siri" does not come close to the pronuniciation of "shiri" IF it's correctly pronounced. If it's incorrectly pronounced (not by a Japanese person but by a non-Japanese person not familiar with the language), it will come close to it. In most situations, the Japanese will add an "o" in front of the word (oshiri) instead of just saying "shiri" (though both mean the same). So, "siri" does NOT mean "butt" in Japanese. The problem will be when the Japanese try to pronounce "siri". Since "si" is not a sound in the Japanese language, they will search for ways to say it using their sound system (as we do trying to pronounce their words). This is when they may end up saying "shiri". That DOES mean "butt" as explained in the article. I believe that the marketing people in Japan can avoid this problem by teaching the Japanese customers the correct pronunication of "siri". Either way, the smirks will fade away as did the one for the iPad - A great product, by the way !
Regardless of its pronunciation, it means butt when it's written down in hiragana or katakana. The only way to avoid the embarrassment would be to write "スィリ" rather than "シリ" but that's very awkward too. Also, it would be impossible for a company to "teach" customers how to pronounce things. Isn't it kinda audacious? (I'm Japanese)
"audacious" ? What a silly thing to say! I'm sorry, did I use the wrong word by saying the customers in Japan would need to be "taught' how to correctly pronounce "siri"? Of course, they can be taught. Just like we can be taught how to correctly pronounce non-English words. Impossible ! You're impossible ! The point (which you missed) was that, by teaching the correct pronunciation of "siri", you could avoid the similiarity with "shiri". I didn't say it would be easy, but it's neither audacious or impossible ! Here's an example for you: Would you buy a "futan" or a "futon". Is it audacious to teach someone the correct pronuniciation of "futon"? Of course not! Silly man!
By the way, you did make a good point about how it would turn out when "siri" is written in Japanese. But, as you can tell, you really turned me off with your "audacious comment". (I'm not Japanese, but it doesn't matter !)
Not possible, unless the company is English school and the customers are willing to learn. Maybe you don't understand Japanese culture as well as you think you do.
Not the first time that an advertising faux pas was created merely by crossing borders to the land of the rising sun.
Take McDonald's "I'm luvin' it" campaign. The Japanese language doesn't have a phonetic sound for L or V. Instead, they use the sounds for R and B. So the next time you bite down on a Big Mac, just remember that catchy little phrase, "I'm rubbin' it."
Apparently the Apple marketing department had its head up its "siri"!
isn't that the name of Tom Cruise's kid? Oh that was Suri or something. Eh, close enough.
Tom Cruise's wife's daughter came to mind right after I'd heard the name as well
If Apple's iPad could survive its inelegant moniker, Siri will survive as the butt of a few jokes. Yes, that pun was intended. :-)
--mark d.
The Siri personal assistant software is not exactly new.. but it was never integrated into the operating system as it is in its current form. So the issue is that the word "sounds kind of like" or is "close to" the Japanese word for buttocks? Seems thin. This will blow over and I wouldn't believe it would have a negative impact on sales.
Beavis and Sirihead.
Apple = some of the STUPIDIST smart people on the planet. LMAO
I guess they don't pay anyone to research 'stuff'. They know EVERYTHING.
That's what arrogance will get ya. Hoisted upon their own petard.
With all the other hype of the NEW iphone that really disappointed everyone this is just anothr snafu on apples part. I sure hope this is not what we can expect from them in the future but think it may be.
Makes sense, the ones using this "personal assistant" are dumb@$$es ;)
worthless story. Find some real news and earn your pay.
Actually, buttocks is (o) shiri... not siri. This is dumb, it's not the same.
"O" is just formality. "Shiri" *does* mean buttocks. When it's written in hiragana or katakana, 99.99% of Japanese people would think of butt.
It comes from the name of the company that Apple bought for $200 million a year ago, so why not take the micky out of the original company, not Apple. Do some research before you comment might learn something.
How does that absolve Apple from a lack of doing the most simple research as to what it is they are naming their crap? lol
You are an Apple fanboi aren't you? Bet you kiss their shiri ofen. LMAO
iPhone 4 Buttocks!
How about naming it chin chin? hehe
Apple survived the comparisons of iPad to feminine hygiene products....now they are all over. I imagine this won't have much long-lasting effect either if the product is good.
Well, i don't know about the rest of you, but i like looking at apple bottoms... LOL