Robert DiBias
In terms of voice activated assistants, most people would
probably identify with Siri. For a short time Apple dominated the tech world
with this new and revolutionary idea. As one of Apple’s main competitors,
Microsoft was lacking in the field of personal voice assistants. So late in the
game they introduced their own Siri, called Cortana. While still relatively
new, Microsoft is already rapidly progressing in this field with the Cortana
software.
Today
they announced that they will start to integrate third-party services directly
into their Cortana software. The first new partnership to have spawned out of
this is with the social network LinkedIn. According to Microsoft, you can now
“use Cortana for…connect[ing] your LinkedIn account to Cortana to access more
information about contacts and their photos”. Now when Cortana reminds you that
you have a meeting, it can also bring up the LinkedIn profile of the person you
are meeting with, giving you some essential last minute details. Microsoft
previously used this type of integration in Outlook before, but this is the
first time that the company can open up connected accounts outside of
Microsoft.
What
does all of this mean for the future of Cortana, Microsoft, and the tech
industry as whole? For starters, Microsoft has found yet another way of
integrating Cortana into everyday routines. There are many unexplored facets
that Microsoft can delve into for Cortana’s daily use. If this business
integration plan is a success, then other businesses will soon follow in
LinkedIn’s footsteps. It will be very convenient to have your company’s
essential information at the fingertips of any Windows user. Unfortunately for
Microsoft, this plan is not a guaranteed success. If the LinkedIn integration
is successful, companies like Apple may see this and start adopting uses like
this for its own purposes. After all, Siri was the original and still is the
more heavily used voice assistant. According to a recent study pitting Siri,
Cortana, and Google Now against each other, Siri came out on top in the
categories of voice, touch activation, gathering information, and unique
abilities. Cortana only received one point from tying with Siri in the unique abilities
category. I believe in order for Microsoft to stand a chance in the digital
assistant competition, they will have to act fast by either upgrading Cortana,
or appealing to more demographics. Funding a new and better Cortana in order to
beat Siri may not be practical. Instead, Microsoft could partner Cortana with companies
of other natures. It is hard to say in which direction would be best for
Microsoft, but it couldn’t hurt to apply one such partnership to a younger
demographic of technology users. I’m sure the younger demographic would love
the idea of having Cortana directly linked to their Facebook or YouTube
accounts. These are just a couple of possibilities for how Microsoft and
Cortana can come out on top.
Hardawar,
Devindra. "Windows 10's Cortana Taps into LinkedIn to Cure Your Meeting
Anxiety." Engadget. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2015.
Vincent,
Brittany. "Siri vs. Cortana vs. Google Now: Why Apple’s Siri Is
Best." Tom's Guide. N.p., 5 Dec. 2014. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
Warren,
Tom. "Microsoft Connects Cortana and LinkedIn Together for Windows
10." The Verge. N.p., 01 Oct. 2015. Web. 01 Oct. 2015.
Although most see Microsoft’s Cortana as inferior to Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s new technological developments have been able to connect Windows 10’s Cortana and LinkedIn. This alliance between Microsoft and LinkedIn is a very important one that should not be underestimated.
ReplyDeleteAlthough consumers may believe that Siri (Apple) is the superior voice activated assistant, Microsoft’s new partnership with LinkedIn demonstrates a push forward for Microsoft to be ahead of Apple. One of the main innovations behind this partnership between Microsoft and LinkedIn is Cortana reminding you of a meeting. However, with this new update, you can now look up who you are meeting with, their LinkedIn profile, and any details about the meeting, or notes you had previously made about that meeting.
Personally, I own an iPhone, and rarely use Siri. Although I understand how useful Siri can be, I prefer not to use Siri because my previous experiences with Siri have aggravated and agitated me. (The prime example being Siri saying “Sorry, but I cannot answer any questions right now”). I do know that since, Apple has made many innovations with Siri, but I still do not use it, simply because I am not used to using Siri on a daily basis. However, Cortana being integrated with LinkedIn is a very interesting innovation made by Microsoft.
Although I do not own a windows phone, or plan on purchasing one, this opens a new possible market for Apple and Microsoft to partner with other companies to make Siri/ Cortana usable through certain apps, rather than through the phone itself. These updates made by Microsoft demonstrate that Apple can do this with other social networks. Although I am not quite in the business world yet, I would enjoy the perks of having Cortana remind me of a meeting, and give me last minute notes about the meeting. Although things like this can be programmed into an iPhone through the reminders app, this process is a lot more difficult than having Cortana remind you.
One thing I am interested to see is the next innovation we see with Siri or Cortana that involves a partnership with another company. Microsoft’s partnership with LinkedIn has opened up endless possibilities, specifically because Apple and Microsoft can target any company to partner with and create applications in which either voice activated assistant can do more things, at a complicated, intricate way that has not been utilized yet.
In conclusion, Microsoft’s new partnership with LinkedIn has created endless opportunities for Apple and Microsoft’s Siri and Cortana to create new applications that we would never have thought of. Cortana being integrated with LinkedIn to remind people of their future meetings sets a precedent for Microsoft, and if they plan on pushing this new idea, they must find more companies to partner with to expand the possibilities that Cortana has.