The co-founder and CEO of Siri – the popular voice recognition technology that defines the new iPhone 4S – joins the growing list of top leaders to part ways with Apple this year.
Dag Kittlaus is widely credited with developing the voice recognition technology that has quickly become the most talked about new feature of the iPhone 4S.
Kittlaus has led the speech recognition efforts for Apple since Apple bought Siri in April of 2010. He had been Siri’s CEO since 2007. Before that, the Norwegian-born Kittlaus was an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Stanford Research Institute and had also worked at Motorola.
Kittlaus is said to be parting amicably with the tech giant, reveals Kara Swisher of All Things D. “There were several reasons for the departure, which was amicable and has been planned for a while, sources said,” Swisher adds. “They included Kittlaus’ family being in Chicago, a desire to take time off and an interest in brainstorming new entrepreneurial ideas.”
According to Swisher, Kittlaus has already left Apple. His departure came shortly after the iPhone 4S was formally introduced on October 4th.
