Abstract
Cortana and Siri are apparently two major direct competitors in the software industry. While both apps have a significant share in the market, it is prudent to mention that the prevailing stiff competition will eventually culminate into better and more enhanced products that are responsive in different devices. At this point, Apple is yet to revolutionize its voice command in Siri because in some cases, iPhone finds it cumbersome to interpret verbal commands.
MIS Article Critique
Currently, Microsoft is developing a new product intended to outwit market competition from other rivals such as Apple. ‘Einstein’ is a man-made intelligence project that is being pursued by Microsoft as part and parcel of an improved personal assistant. The Windows phone has been using the Cortana “personal assistant” for some time now. When Windows 10 will eventually be ushered later this year, the new version will definitely be integrated into the desktop.
However, Microsoft expects to make Cortana a standalone app so that it can be used in a number of communication devices across the board. Individuals and experts who understand the progress of the project well have exuded their confidence over this personal assistant by arguing that it will eventually be compatibly used with both Android and iOS devices.
According to Rigby (2015), upon the next roll out of the project, users will be in a position to communicate with a lot of ease bearing in mind that the device will be able to read and comprehend email on its own. Microsoft Research projects are geared towards making sure that the company sets the pace and remain equally competitive especially when it comes to software innovation and development.
Nevertheless, there are no reports yet on the intention by Microsoft to integrate Cortana in devices using iOS and Android. Even the Einstein project has not been publicly documented anywhere. It is crucial to mention that the ‘artificial intelligence’ concept is wide.
It is against this backdrop why dexterity with verbal language is profound in computers and mobile phones. The latter is also sifting through emails for information. However, the Information Technology company still stands a chance of transforming its digital assistant through search an machine learning as well as speech recognition.
From the outset, it is evident that Microsoft is confident that Cortana will eventually out-merit Siri from Apple. This can indeed be true because Cortana is quite an independent system compared to Siri. For example, the app does not depend on voice commands as it is the case with Siri.
In other words, it is a virtual assistant that is fully-fledged (Welinske, 2014). This attribute can attract more users into adopting the application owing to limited demand when it comes to third party usage. Siri is simply a voice assistant which still relies on other proxies for full operation.
In addition, the unique notebook feature in Cortana outsmarts Siri in a number of ways. Real-life personal assistants can be used alongside with this feature besides setting personal preferences. For instance, it allows the user to specify people who should be in the inner circle, set which news headlines to follow and also rearranging a list of music searches among other functionalities (Welinske, 2014).
As a standalone app, Cortana presents a broad view of the various features and attributes that can be directly accessed over a Windows phone. Since the immediate competitor (Siri) does not have the same feature, Microsoft is highly likely to make major advances in the software industry by leveraging on the loose ends and limitations of Siri.
References
Rigby, B. (2015). Microsoft’s Siri rival to be available on Android, Apple devices. Web.
Welinske, J. (2014). Developing User Assistance for Mobile Apps (2nd ed.). New York: Win Writers, Inc.