The story floating around this morning is that Apple is testing Siri on the iPhone 4 and is looking to bring it to the iPhone 4 eventually. The first part is true, and the second part is not. Apple has long been testing Siri on the iPhone 4. In fact, Apple employees are currently running around with Siri on their iPhone 4. In addition, Apple has even left Siri references in the latest iOS 5.0.1 beta for the iPhone 4 – and even the iPad and iPod touch.

Siri runs just fine on the iPhone 4 in both our earlier and more recent testing. Using Siri on the iPhone 4 was incredibly smooth, just like the Siri experience on an iPhone 4S.

But just because Apple has tested Siri on the iPhone 4, and just because Siri files are in the iPhone 4 file system, and just because Siri runs great on the iPhone 4 does not mean Siri is coming to the iPhone 4.

Remember when Apple released the iPhone 3GS with the ability to capture video and people wondered why the original iPhone or 3G weren’t given rights to capture video, even though Jailbreak Apps showed it working fine? Same thing here. Apple is in the business of selling hardware. Don’t forget that.

Apple chose to make Siri an iPhone 4S exclusive for multiple reasons. One being for marketing purposes, take Apple’s newest phone and you get their new and fancy artificial intelligence system. Apple spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Siri’s development, and issuing the software as a free upgrade would not be beneficial to Apple.

The next reason is the iPhone 4S is a more closed control group for the Siri “beta” than if Apple were to open Siri to the tens of millions of iPhone 4 customers. Third is the future. We’ve been hearing a lot of whispers about the future of Siri from multiple sources, and the A4 single-core processor will simply not do. When Apple releases something in a certain way, they have good reason.

Moral of the story: your iPhone 4 will not be getting Siri (legally).

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