14 DAY TRIAL // Apple launched the new iPhones this week, and pretty much the whole world watched the event live on the company’s official website, as this was clearly one of the most awaited moments of the entire year.
But Microsoft in its turn also offered users something really interesting to watch, as it rolled out a new Siri vs. Cortana commercial that put Apple’s personal assistant in a bad light.
As my colleague Cosmin Vasile reported to you a couple of days ago, the new video brings Cortana’s reminder tool in the spotlight, emphasizing that Microsoft’s own service can remember pretty much everything, from restaurants and people to calendar entries and news.
“Cortana gets to know you and learns your interests over time. She remembers your favorite people, restaurants, news topics and more. She can even remember your appointments and help you get there on time with proactive traffic alerts,” Microsoft said in the description of the ad.
Nearly 3 million views in 2 days
The new Siri vs. Cortana commercial recorded a pretty amazing success, pretty much thanks to the buzz created around the launch of the new iPhone 6.
The video has at this point 2.7 million views and more than 500 comments, some of which are also criticizing Microsoft for its attempt to make fun of Siri on the iPhone 6 launch day.
“Alright, I love Cortana, especially from the Halo games, but I hate when I see companies get desperate and bully each other,” one user posted.
Others, however, claim that Cortana is indeed much better than Siri and point to its powerful features that are only available on Windows Phone 8.1 for now.
“Actually, after a week you stop using Siri. 2 months and still using Cortana almost daily. She is a really cool feature that even my friend who loves his S5 thinks is pretty awesome. Go buy a cheap lumia 630 and use it for a month and then get back to me,” he posted.
Cortana coming to the desktop
Word is that Microsoft is currently working to bring Cortana, the personal assistant, to the desktop with the release of Windows 9.
Currently available only for users of Windows Phone 8.1, Cortana could thus become available on both desktops and tablets, helping users perform a number of tasks using voice commands.
At this point, a preview version of Cortana is said to already be in development, but it’s very unlikely to be part of the beta build of the operating system that’s scheduled to see daylight later this month.
Cortana, however, will probably make its public debut on the desktop in April 2015, when Microsoft is expected to unveil the final version of Windows 9.
