14 DAY TRIAL // Cortana, Microsoft's very own personal assistant that's currently available on Windows Phone and that will soon launch on Windows 10 as well, is set to land on other rival platforms, including iOS and Android, according to a new report.
This news might come as a big surprise for Microsoft fanboys who hoped to keep Cortana a Windows-exclusive feature, but it turns out that the Redmond-based tech giant has more enthusiastic plans when it comes to the personal assistant.
According to a report published by Reuters today, Cortana is set to arrive on iOS and Android later this year, as Microsoft has already started work on such a project behind closed doors.
Internally codenamed project “Einstein,” the new technology is supposed to make Cortana broadly available in the mobile industry, so releasing it on other platforms besides Windows Phone and Windows 10 is a thing that's expected to happen later this year.
“This kind of technology, which can read and understand email, will play a central role in the next roll out of Cortana, which we are working on now for the fall time frame,” said Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research, who is also working on project Einstein.
Cortana to compete against Siri directly
Apple's very own digital assistant called Siri is powered by Bing, the same search engine that's behind Cortana, so Microsoft's new technology will compete directly against similar technology belonging to the Cupertino-based rival.
“We're defining the competitive landscape... of who can provide the most supportive services that make life easier, keep track of things, that complement human memory in a way that helps us get things done,” said Horvitz.
And that's exactly how Microsoft hopes to convince more users to adopt Cortana instead of Siri. Offering them features that could help “make life easier” is a thing that Redmond has always aimed at, so Cortana will now be Microsoft's key feature in the fight against its mobile rivals.
And yet, there's one big problem that Microsoft should really take into consideration. In the last few months, users have been really frustrated with Redmond's increasing focus on Android and iOS apps, and bringing Cortana on rival platforms does nothing more than to fuel this criticism.
Obviously, Microsoft still needs to offer superior performance and features on Windows Phone to make sure that users stick to its platform, but with many of its apps available on rival OSes, this thing has become a lot harder.