Will we ever see Cortana outside of the Microsoft ecosystem one day?

Four days ago Marcus Ash, who leads the group in charge of Cortana for Windows Phone, talked about the possibility of seeing the personal assistant on other platforms with Android and iOS. In a matter of hours the news began to spread through the network and users began to question whether Microsoft really trusted Windows Phone.

The response to this uproar was immediate, and we finally learned that they were not currently working on carrying out this project, but that it was simply an ideacommented by Marcus Ash.So, it is clear that Cortana will reach the entire Microsoft ecosystem sooner, but after that, is it possible to see it one day outside of it?

The priority is the Microsoft ecosystem

If there's one thing Marcus Ash wanted to make clear at SMX Advanced in Seattle, it's that Microsoft's first priority right now is to get Cortana out to all Windows users Phone 8.1 in their respective languages, once the final version is released.

After that and before making any other decisions on other platforms, they will try to bring Cortana to Windows users on PC, tablets, Xbox One and wherever possible. Your second priority is to extend Cortana as much as possible throughout your ecosystem.

Therefore, there is no reason to think that Android or iOS users will even be able to see Cortana on their devices before any user who has opted for a Windows Phone or another Redmond device.

This is certainly great news for everyone, as I think it would not have been a good decision to allow Microsoft's personal assistant to reach users on other platforms before yours. Or did Google or Apple do it?

And with this I don't want to say that I don't like the idea, since in the next section we will discuss why they were considering this possibility. Microsoft is already investing heavily in other ecosystems unlike its competitors, and as an example we have Office 365 which is available for Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad, Android, and even Symbian and BlackBerry.

Cortana on Android and iPhone, why?

Commenting on his idea at the conference, Marcus Ash explained why they were thinking about this controversial issue:

What is clear is that Microsoft is not abandoning Windows Phone like other people think.In my opinion, they have been able to see how the market is currently, and have not adopted a restrictive vision in which you could only enjoy a complete experience if you only purchased their products.

Their goal is that if you're a Windows 8 user and they bring Cortana to Windows 8, you'll be able to get a full experience regardless of whether you've chosen Windows Phone, Android or iOS After all, you'd still be a Microsoft customer even if it's only on PC.

This makes a big difference with respect to the policy that Apple follows, for example, since Microsoft does not intend to force you to purchase its range of products if you want them to be able to interact with each other. I also don't think decisions like that can be allowed, at least not until they get a much larger market share than they have now with Windows Phone.

And even if they succeeded, they should follow the same philosophy since a company does not have to be the best in all devices of the market, and even if you have Windows on your PC, you don't have to like Windows Phone.

What will Cortana next do?

Although Cortana is currently in beta in the US, according to Marcus Ash Half of the people who use it are from different parts of the worldThis is possible thanks to the fact that, as you know, if you have Windows Phone 8.1 and in the region and language of the phone you choose English (USA) you will be able to use Cortana.

Marcus explains in another video about the creation of Cortana why it's still in Beta:

He also mentions that they're really surprised that so many people are willing to use Cortana even if it's not in their native language, and that this has led them to think about how long it should take at most to get her there to all users:

From what he says, it sounds like they're going to try to do aninternational deployment as soon as possibleeven if that means leaving some things of side and implement them later through updates.What's more, I think they should have done it as they collected data for each country, even if they don't have the speech recognition system ready for all languages.

For example, they could have activated Cortana in Spain even though she spoke English, so when she can speak and understand Spanish they would only have to publish an update. I think it's better than waiting for months, although with Siri Apple also applied a phased rollout.

Conclution

Microsoft wants to prioritize its devices over those of the competition, and therefore will try to implement Cortana throughout its ecosystem before making any other decision. The idea of ​​Cortana on Android and iOS arises from a realistic vision of the current market, where few people do not have a mobile with an operating system that has nothing to do with the one they can use on their PC or tablet.

Is it a risky decision? There are people who think that Cortana should be treated as an exclusivity that acts as an incentive for consumers when choosing one operating system or another. What I think is that the success of Windows Phone cannot be left to things like that, but what has to influence the decision is the whole set

We know that the degree of implementation of Cortana on Android or iOS can never be the same as what they can achieve on Windows Phone, basically because they will not be able to access the phone's hardware in the same way. For this reason, there would still be differences in the way it works on Windows Phone compared to other platforms.

Even so, Microsoft has a long way to go with Cortana before considering entering other ecosystems. The most important thing right now is to work on Windows Phone, to later include it in the rest of its ecosystem.Once they do, then they will be able to afford to think about offering these features on competing devices.