If there is anything as good as Siri in 2.3, I can't say I've ever seen an Android wielding friend use it.

Maps was a unique case: They were paying the price of having partnered with Google in the beginning. A steep price to pay, but ultimately their solution is quite elegant. The combination of 3d+yelp+inhouse traffic is almost an all-in-one replacement of what Google provides. I guess we saw the beginning of that with Siri + Yelp already.

But you're right, Apple has some catch up to do.

But more so than I ever I feel that owning an Apple device isn't just a device, but it's buying into entire ecosystem. I'm digging their conservative, metered approach to rolling out features. I like the consistent, timely updates that the userbase is adopting in mass, reliably.

No one can deny that this is a good groove they've got: yearly updates with occasional feature updates that 70%+ of their userbase is adopting. It reminds me of the update model that Chrome and now Firefox use.

Voice commands have been in Android for a long time (2.2?). They're not quite as smart as Siri (natural language processing, witty responses), though in my personal experience far more accurate (maybe that's because my phone has been trained to my voice over time and when I've seen Siri in action it's usually someone who just got the 4S).