In a move that will give Apple a leading edge in terms of mobile search technology for its popular iPhone, Apple has reportedly taken over the mobile search and “personal assistant” vendor Siri.

Confirming Apple’s acquisition of Siri, the company’s co-founder Norman Winarsky said during a brief interview with PCMag. com that the deal has been completed. However, Winarsky refrained from disclosing the financial terms of the acquisition.

The February-launched Siri – was named the most innovative company at Microsoft’s BizSpark conference this March - currently publishes a natural-language iPhone app, similar to Google’s Search by voice feature; and is in the process of developing apps for the 3G platform.

Noting that the Siri acquisition has taken Apple a step ahead of its mobile search market competitors, Altimeter analyst Michael Gartenberg said that Apple will apparently tightly integrate Siri; thereby expunging the advantage Google’s Android offers with its tightly coupled search.

In a blog post, Gartenberg said: “This year continues to be transformative as Apple is not only now in the mobile advertising business but also has the platform to enable and monetize mobile search at the OS level as a core service. Siri has already gotten rave reviews as a next-gen search service and now it's a Cupertino exclusive. Look for expanded services to be included as part of the Siri offering as well as a huge value for those services selected to be chosen a part of the Siri eco-system.”