Is Microsoft afraid of Alexa? Satya Nadella believes that Cortana can fight in the virtual assistant market

One of the news this year is the appearance of Alexa, Amazon's personal assistant, within Windows 10. In fact, the devices that allow access to Alexa in the form of an application will be differentwhat many have thought will be a train wreck with Cortana.

And it is that Microsoft's virtual assistant will fight hand-to-hand on its own ground with Alexa, a similar solution in operation but with which Amazon has achieved infinite deployment superior to that of the competition thanks to greater usability due to the functionalities it offers.But are they afraid at Microsoft?.

Satya Nadella is optimistic

And it is thatSatya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, is not worriedSo much so that he encourages investors to encourage Alexa on her arrival to the Windows ecosystem. Nadella may know something we don't know or be very optimistic, but Alexa is a fierce enemy.

In this sense for Nadella, Cortana has strengths that allow her to have a good perspective for future growth Being able to drink from Windows 10 (and its more than 600 million users), Office 365 or Xbox, according to Nadella it can be a plus in favor of Cortana.

In addition, and this is true, the personal assistants have just arrived as they say. They have been with us very little and in fact a minority of countries have support to be able to interact with the products that comprise themAnd no, we are not talking about Google Assistant, Siri or Cortana integrated into mobile devices.

Now the Apple Homepod has been announced with a staggered arrival and Alexa is not yet available, for example in Spain (and a large number of markets) so we will have to wait for Increasing use makes them truly intelligent thanks to the experiences they generate.

The market will not only be for one attendee. There is room for all the developments thanks to some assistants who each time will offer a more natural experience

Nadella's opinion is that in the future the assistants will be truly intelligent, allowing a much more natural and fluid conversation with the user , something like a back-and-forth chat. And in this sense Cortana will be prepared to offer a rewarding experience.

In fact at CES 2018 they announced agreements with brands such as Ecobee, Geeni, Honeywell Lyric, IFTTT, LIFX, TP-Link Kasa and Honeywell Total Connect ComfortAgreements that show that the American company does not want to neglect interaction in the smart home and allow the use of lighting systems, plugs, switches or thermostats among other products.

Maybe as Nadella affirms, the future of personal assistants will be shared among various proposals, but it cannot be denied that Amazon with Alexa has been the first to hit the market with a fist and they have known how to do it in such a way that they have put the road uphill for Microsoft, Google or Apple, brands that will find it difficult to scratch market share from the giant purchases.

There is therefore no more to wait to see if Nadella is right and if Cortana can afford to be an interesting alternative looking to the future, especially with Amazon and Alexa playing in your own backyard.

Source | Geekwire In Xataka Windows |