Audience, the Mountain View-based company which develops the earSmart audio filtering technology embedded in Apple's A5 chip, has announced that Apple is "unlikely" to use the system in the next-generation iPhone, set to be announced next week. EarSmart is known to power the iPhone 4S's Siri voice assistant feature, but third-party hacks have long enabled users to run the app on the iPhone 4 and iPod touch, devices which lack the A5 chip.

Writing in a statement last night, Audience clarified that it is "not aware of any intended changes by this OEM to its use of Audience's processors or processor IP in prior generations of the OEM's mobile phones." It is not yet clear whether Apple plans to embed its own replacement technology in the new phone, or what the dropping of earSmart could mean for the use of Siri on other Apple devices.