It’s starting to look like Cortana won’t be exclusive to Windows Phone in the near future. At least, that’s what the interpretation of Microsoft’s chief experience officer Julie Larson-Green’s comment during a private press event. When asked if Cortana would be arriving on other operating systems, Green responded by saying, “The short answer is, yeah.”
Now, that answer can be interpreted in different ways. In one way, Microsoft might be bringing Cortana to Android or iOS in some form or fashion. Or perhaps, Microsoft is looking to ramp up Bing’s prediction engine, having a Cortana-like experience while making Cortana exclusive to Windows Phone. Either way, Microsoft will likely look at what brings in the bigger bucks.
The folks at Business Insider, who were the first to report this, also bring up a good point. Microsoft’s recent products like Office for iPhone, iPad, and Android makes it pretty damn clear that Microsoft is open to bringing its own apps and services to rival platforms. In fact, Android and iOS shouldn’t even be considered ‘rival’ platforms anymore.
Google Now is already on the iPhone, offering an alternative to Apple’s Siri. But the question is, should Cortana, which is currently exclusive to Windows Phone, be allowed on Android or iOS? Cortana is one of the key features and incentives of having a Windows Phone device.
Now ‘other operating systems’ could also imply Microsoft’s own Windows desktop operating system, or even Xbox. We already know that Cortana will arrive on Windows 10, so perhaps Green didn’t want to dive too deep into this and merely said, “The short answer is, yeah.” Technically speaking, Cortana will soon no longer be exclusive to Windows Phone, now that Windows 10 will have the digital assistant.
Again, Green’s response can be taken in so many different ways since it wasn’t specific. We’ll just have to wait and see.