Siri to Stay an iPhone 4S Exclusive - Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

This ought to put a damper on those regular iPhone 4 users who were hoping for a software upgrade.

Contrary to

various reports

, Apple

AAPL

has no plans to bring Siri to older iPhones. That's according to

an iOS developer named Michael Steeber

(via

TechCrunch

), who first claims to have received a tip from someone claiming that Apple hinted that Siri would come to the iPhone 4 (standard edition). “I received word yesterday from someone who contacted Apple with a bug report, suggesting an optional build of iOS with Siri included, available as a paid upgrade,” Steeber claims, pointing to this message:

iPhone 4 Users and iPod touch 4th generation users pay a fee of 19.99 to upgrade to a ‘special' build of iOS 5.0.1 with Siri Final in it, (To avoid hackers hacking Siri onto non 4S devices illegally) **Many iPhone 4 Users and iPod touch 4th generation Users will pay for this special iOS build (5.0.1) which will enable Siri for a fee of $19.99 US dollars.

Steeber says that Apple responded with the following statement: “Engineering has provided the following feedback regarding this issue: Siri only works on iPhone 4S and we currently have no plans to support older devices.” While I have no doubt that Apple will keep Siri on the iPhone 4S (if only to ensure that its high sales figures continue), I wouldn't consider this guy's blog to be a solid confirmation of anything. For one thing, you can't always believe everything you read on the Internet (shocking revelation, isn't it?). Second, if Apple was going to reveal Siri support on older iPhones, it wouldn't do so with a simple e-mail – it would make the announcement with a boisterous, over-hyped press conference that

disappoints everyone but the most diehard Apple fans

Follow me @LouisBedigian

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