Microsoft's Cortana on Windows Phone will compete with Siri and Google Now

Microsoft unfortunately has to to respond to Siri and Google Now with a voice assistant of their own. While Google was quick to compete with Siri with Google Now, Microsoft have excused themselves by stating that they wanted to have  "something more revolutionary than evolutionary." before they would respond. In reality we were unsure if Microsoft was just giving this excuse to make up for their internal delays with coming up with a solution or if they would really blow our minds when their had a response of their own.

The good news is that we may not have to wait for long to find out

New reports from various sources claim that Microsoft is working on a digital assistant which will be called Cortana. Those who have played Halo would remember Cortana as the fictional artificially intelligent (AI) character in the Halo video game series. The first few clues left behind by Microsoft were discovered in a Nokia Lumia 920, bought off eBay, which has a developer build of Windows Phone 8.1. The device had a 'zCortanaApp' loaded, where the 'z' in front indicates that it's an early experimental version.

Mary Foley from ZDNet states that Cortana will be at the core of a new “service-enabled shell” for Microsoft platforms, something that then CEO Steve Ballmer talked about in his July memo on Microsoft's reorganization. The idea is that Microsoft wants Cortana to do more than simply what we've come to expect from virtual assistants:

"Our UI will be deeply personalized, based on the advanced, almost magical, intelligence in our cloud that learns more and more over time about people and the world. Our shell will natively support all of our essential services, and will be great at responding seamlessly to what people ask for, and even anticipating what they need before they ask for it."

As ambitious as it sounds, we would warmly welcome Microsoft's response to a digital personal assistant. While we were wondering if Clippy may decide to debut with the role, we are happy with Microsoft's Halo reference, and cant help but wonder if Cortana will make its way to Windows Phone 8 GDR3, which is the next update in line.

source - ZDNet | The Verge | Microsoft