Microsoft has revealed its plans to roll-out Cortana to Windows 10 users the world over. The popular digital assistant has become a highly identifiable part of the Microsoft brand since its launch with Windows Phone 8.1, and has become a highly requested feature worldwide.
Cortana will arrive in the U.S, U.K, China, France, Italy, Germany and Spain on July 29th, with the launch of Windows 10. Following this, over the next few months, Windows Insiders in Japan and Australia will receive the service, and in English to users in Canada and India. Later in the year, the service will be expanded to Brazil and Mexico, and eventually to French speakers in Canada.
As Microsoft details, the process of converting Cortana to a new language isn’t quite as straightforward as simply hiring a local voice actor and writing a few new lines — different cultures are highly important. Take Japan for instance, where highly formal politeness is expected without question. Or the U.K, where things are taken a little less seriously, and the likes of a digital assistant must have, at the very least, a self-deprecating sense of humor if it wishes to survive and enjoy any reasonable degree of popularity.
With Microsoft imminently set to roll-out its digital assistant to Windows PCs around the world, as well as Android devices, the future looks increasingly bright for Cortana. Possessing potentially unparalleled access to an almost unbelievable number of computing devices the world over, Cortana will likely receive an enormous upgrade in usability as the benefits of a massive upsurge in big data analysis on her part comes about, and a correspondingly bright future.
Are you excited about Cortana arriving on Windows 10 in your country? What is your favorite question to ask her? Let us know in the comments below.
