Microphone is one of the most important parts for a modern iOS device, especially when it goes about an iPhone 4S. This takes Apple to the first place. In 2011 Apple purchased 348.8 millions micro electro mechanical system microphones for their iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. This is 173% more than in 2010. Apple now has 27% on the world’s market while Samsung is left behind with only 20%.
There are two types of MEMS microphones – digital and analog. Digital ones are of better quality. The iPad 2 users can enjoy a great sound their devices produce. Meanwhile, the iPhone 4 and 4S is equipped with three analogue microphones.
According to IHS iSuppli director Jérémie Bouchaud, a rapid adoption of multiple microphones in smartphone devices was necessary for noise compression, especially important for voice commands such as those used in the Siri speech-recognition feature of the iPhone 4S.
You see? It is important for Siri to use two, or even more microphones. In case Apple is planning to make this system available on iPad 3, they’ll have to use several microphones in this version. And it is high time to equip the previous devices with digital mics.