
Microsoft’s Cortana Headed to iPhone and Android Phones - abetaha
http://blogs.wsj.com/personal-technology/2015/05/26/microsofts-cortana-headed-to-iphone-and-android-phones/?mod=WSJ_TechWSJD_NeedToKnow
======
BinaryIdiot
One of the biggest advantages of Cortana was its ability to interface with
third party application pretty much at launch (something Siri and Google Now
still don't do much of). Going cross platform is awesome though I'm not sure
if it'll be quite as useful. Realistically Microsoft could strike a deal and
make an Android phone use Cortana by default (which might be really good)
which would be quite interesting (especially if it could integrate with third
party apps on Android, too).

One thing that makes me hesitant when choosing a new app is what platform(s)
it's available or will be available on. I bounce between Android and iOS
almost once a year; this type of ubiquity Microsoft is pushing makes me use
their products more and more because I know they'll be available everywhere I
go.

~~~
macspoofing
>Realistically Microsoft could strike a deal and make an Android phone use
Cortana by default

Zero chance for Google doing it but maybe one of manufacturers or Cyanogen?

~~~
maemre
They may convince manifacturers (like Samsung) rather than Google and ship
Cortana as part of OEM software.

~~~
frik
Zero chance for Samsung, the have their own personal assistant since Galaxy
S2. (both Apple's Siri and Samsung one are now based on Nuance technology)

~~~
blumkvist
Zero chance? Yeah... no. Many people would be very surprised how quickly
manufacturers start to ditch google once windows10 gets out.

~~~
baldfat
The issue in tech has never been who has the best tech wins. Over and over it
isn't about technology or better this or that. It is based on mindshare of
developers, the market position of the product and public demand for the item.

Window Phones are good tech. The phones are designed very well. The OS is
fluid and it does things well. I just can't ever see it breaking into double
digits of market share in the next 5 years due to public demand for Windows
items and the lack of mind share. Maybe in 5+ years. I think MS has a better
chance of just doing a Amazon and fork Android.

~~~
blumkvist
>It is based on mindshare of developers, the market position of the product
and public demand for the item.

No, no, no. This war is won by distribution. Your mom doesn't go to the store
to buy an android phone. She goes to buy a phone. Which phone? The one that
the friendly employee at the store proposes. Which one is that? The one that
the store manager tells the employee to push. Which phone is that? The one
that corporate headquarters tells stores to push. Which phone is that? The
ones with lucrative kickback schemes. Which phones are that? The ones that
manufacturers decide.

Which phones will they decide on? The phones in partnerships with the company
that changes their agreements and APIs every quarter? Maybe they will chose
the company that they have a very profitable partnership going on for 3
decades. The company that has the power to waive a magic stick and turn them
from unprofitable/breakeven to well into the green. Comapnies pay a lot of
money to MSFT every year on patents. Samsung paid $1bn last year alone. Every
manufacturer is losing money on smart phones because of that. Guess what? If
you push our phone, we can share those patents with you. Oh, btw, we can
subsidize those windows phones, give you some cash advance on the OS you sell
for us just to stitch things up for the next few quarters.

Microsoft is all about business. Big business. Big partnerships. They
suffocate competition in a very deliberate manner. Google hasn't competed ever
with anyone. Moreover, Erick Smidt tanked Novel back in the day because of
poor relationships with their partners.

On top of that, the OS will be good. Nobody will complain. Lots of phones will
be sold in the lower end market. Some corporate deals will be done for the mid
and high end markets and the ball will get rolling. Developers will be happy
too. MSFT is making big progress in that lately. You also get the added bonus
of developing for the windows PC and tablet platforms, in addition to the
phone platform. Everyone will make lots of money. Except google.

~~~
baldfat
I think your argument falls on one Company's name HTC. They went BIG on
Windows Phones. They made a good phone. They failed. There was a big push at
Sprint for Windows Phones a few times and I still see very few in the wild.

People don't go to buy a "phone" in 2015. They go to buy an iPhone, a Samsung
or Note4, than the other 1/3 of the market are people who buy the "free phone"
which is a thing of the past. Now it is cheapest phone which people have
already got burned on. People talk about what phone all the time. Not I got
what the store sold me. If they sell you anything it will be an expensive
iPhone or Note.

My friend's teenage kids both hated their Windows Phones because they weren't
iOS and thought it was uncool. "It wasn't even a Samsung." They both broke the
phones so that they wouldn't have to be seen with them.

I see Windows Phones at every store I go to.

~~~
blumkvist
I guess we'll see :)

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jimmcslim
There's a subtle irony in that while Cortana can probably be more deeply
integrated with Android than iOS, the same can't be said for Google Now on
Windows Phone...

~~~
higherpurpose
Yup. Android is still far more open than Windows Phone/mobile from that point
of view, which is why it's possible for Microsoft to do many of these things
with Android. Last I checked you couldn't even have another browser other than
IE on Windows Phone, and I assume that won't change with Windows 10 mobile.

Also you can make Android apps work on Windows or another OS relatively easy
but the reverse isn't true (not counting the very hacky WINE on Linux).

All of that still shows that at least for now Google is still much more "open"
than Microsoft is.

The unfortunate thing is that these moves where Microsofts gets to integrate
with "open" stuff from Google, and then gets all credit for doing that, is
only going to force Google to become _more closed_ to stop Microsoft from
doing that. It's kind of a nash equilibrium.

When you open up a lot of stuff and your competitor uses it freely and gets
credit for doing that, but you can't do the same with your competitors'
products - what's the outcome?

It reminds me of when Gtalk was open right until Microsoft wanted to integrate
it with Skype. Then Google shut down that API because it couldn't have done
the same with Skype, and Microsoft would've been the one with the app that has
"both Skype and Gtalk", and not Google.

~~~
Artemis2
Android is open, Google is not at all. Google is actually pulling source code
off AOSP (the actual open-source Android) to put more of it into their custom,
closed-source applications. As a result, a base install of Android without all
Google's services is very poor and pretty outdated. [0]

Most of the work Microsoft does on Android (and iOS) would easily be
replicable by Google on Windows Phone: Office, Skype, OneDrive... are all apps
that Google has competitors for on Android and iOS. Instead of playing the
same game, Google chooses to be the evil one. [1]

0: [http://www.infoworld.com/article/2610371/android/meet-
aosp--...](http://www.infoworld.com/article/2610371/android/meet-aosp--the-
other-android--while-you-still-can.html)

1: [https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2013/08/15/the-
lim...](https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2013/08/15/the-limits-of-
googles-openness/)

~~~
yohui
> _As a result, a base install of Android without all Google 's services is
> very poor and pretty outdated._

You can install AOSP or custom ROMs such as CyanogenMod and have a perfectly
free, modern smartphone OS. You won't have access to all the Android apps in
the Google Play Store, but that's self-evident. The F-Droid repo provides
verified FOSS apps, or if non-Google proprietary sources are permitted there's
the Amazon Appstore.

> _Most of the work Microsoft does on Android (and iOS) would easily be
> replicable by Google on Windows Phone: Office, Skype, OneDrive... are all
> apps that Google has competitors for on Android and iOS._

The app in question, Cortana, will be able to integrate into Android at least
as deeply as the Bing app does now, which means it can replace Google search
in most ways. If Microsoft had an Android launcher, they could ensure Google
is completely replaced (by supplanting Google Now). Combined with Microsoft's
existing Android lock screen and other apps, all that's needed to complete the
Microsoft Android experience is Windows Store for Android.

On the other hand, the closest you can get to replacing Cortana on Windows
Phone is to disable Cortana completely, which means queries will be handled by
the search engine in your default browser instead. IE is the only browser
option, but you can choose either Google or Bing (except on phones that
disable the Google option).

Google does achieve remarkable results on iOS despite its restrictions. But
that simply demonstrates the monumental effort it would take to bring a sub-
par version of the Google experience to a locked-down platform, whereas
Microsoft can take over Android with relative ease. iOS has marketshare and
legacy ties to justify the expense, but WP has neither.

------
julianz
How about they actually get around to releasing it on Windows Phone? I bought
a Lumia 735 three weeks ago partly based on advertising on the MS NZ site that
said Cortana was available. It's not, and now they've removed that page.

The most annoying thing about that is the "quiet hours" feature is somehow
dependent on Cortana, so the phone doesn't do that either.

(Other than that, very nice phone and OS, just hobbled)

~~~
hbharadwaj
You can just set your location as US. That would make it work. (Not ideal)

~~~
julianz
Thanks - I did try that but I haven't been able to come up with any
combination of location and regional settings that works on this phone. Even
setting it to US everything doesn't work.

~~~
Aoyagi
Did you check for updates in store and settings after changing region and
language to UK? I made it work once and I'm not even in an English speaking
country.

------
spoiledtechie
I dont know how many of you are windows phone users but I think Microsoft
missed a few very important features with Cortana. Most notably the qr scanner
and Bing backgrounds that they had with the previous search feature. It
diminished my experience soo much that I disabled Cortana entirely from my
phone only to go back to the default search, which is just as good if not
better than Cortana. I wasn't a power user with Cortana by any means, but they
sure didn't bring the features up to Cortana that they already had with
default search. I still love my phone, but the default search is much nicer
feel than clunky Cortana.

~~~
jkestner
Really, you used QR codes? Those two things I never thought about. I don't
remember much about the previous experience, but I use Cortana quite a bit.
Just having it be smart about suggesting directions, flight tracking,
reminders, text messages, all from one point where I can either speak or type,
makes it a thing I go to without thought. Voice recognition -> helpful answer
is the best overall intelligent assistant I've used.

------
jedberg
It's interesting that Microsoft seems to be using the same playbook they used
with Windows -- make the software run everywhere and sell the software that
goes with it. While Apple keeps using their playbook -- make software that
goes with their hardware so that people buy the hardware.

It will be interesting to see which one wins out this time. So far it's
clearly Apple, but time will tell.

~~~
josu
>It will be interesting to see which one wins out this time. So far it's
clearly Apple, but time will tell.

If you want to compare apples to apples (no pun intended) you should take a
look at software sales. So far, neither seems to be doing that well on mobile
platforms. I have never bought a Microsoft nor an Apple app on my mobile
devices.

~~~
sib
Not sure that's really a relevant comparison given that Microsoft is
(effectively) a software company and Apple (effectively) a hardware company.
Apple's relative lack of software sales on mobile does not prevent their
software and ecosystem from driving literally hundreds of billions of dollars
of high-margin hardware sales.

------
frik
"But the release of Cortana and the companion app—as well as other fully
featured Microsoft apps like OneDrive, Office and Outlook.com—on iOS and
Android is an acknowledgment that Windows phones will likely never be chosen
by a significant chunk of even the most diehard Windows users"

Microsoft Excel 1.0 was first on Mac, there was never a 1.0 for DOS or
Windows. Windows is still the monopoly on PC with 90+% share due OEM and EFI.
For the mobile devices both iOS and Android are big, then comes the smaller
rest of Win, Blackberry, Bada, Jelly, Ubuntu, FirefoxOS, etc. WinCE had a head
start 20 years ago, but especially the die hard Windows users turned away from
WinMobile 6.5 (CE based) as it was dumped with all its app eco system in favor
of WinPhone 7 (still CE but with only Silverlight/XAML apps) that was as
useful as Android 1 or iOS 1.

------
jfuhrman
Earlier discussion of the actual source here
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9606188](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9606188)

Looks like it was quickly knocked off the front page by the flamebait detector
thanks to the offtopic toxic comments accusing MS employees of voting up the
the post.

[http://hnrankings.info/9606188/](http://hnrankings.info/9606188/)

~~~
castell
During the Microsoft Build event a lot of Microsoft employees registered new
HN account (shown as green) and up-voted MS related headlines in the following
days. Not that I'm complaining but it looked more like a coordinated effort.
HN certainly relies on some automatic voting ring detection.

------
zobzu
Go Microsoft. This is the right move. Embrace. They had forgotten how, they're
learning it again.

(and yes, extend, and possibly extinguish may still be next).

As a part-time Windows 10 and MS Band and Android/iOS user, I for one will
happily use this.

And if I can integrate it for my own voice recognition needs in third party
apps, all the better.

------
empiricus
Well, I'm still waiting for Cortana to be available on the Surface Pro
tablets.

