Microsoft wants more people to use Cortana away from Windows

It’s no secret that Microsoft has been having trouble with getting users to actively use Cortana, facing stiff competition from Google Assistant, Alexa and even Siri in some places.

Microsoft now wants to turn Cortana into something that powers voice computing, the next stage of computing in a way that will catapult it into the lead.  Citing Microsoft’s David Ku, the WSJ notes that the firm wants users to use Cortana when they aren’t in front of their PCs. Perhaps with smart speakers, smart thermostats and in cars.

The problem is that there are few of these devices. Microsoft’s and Harmon Kardon’s Invoke speaker “went absolutely nowhere” as per Gartner’s Wener Goertz. The GLAS thermostat has been in perpetual pre-order preparation status, and smart cars with Cortana have yet to debut.
Developers aren’t building apps for Cortana either, with few users using the platform, it faces the Windows Phone problem of no users > no apps > no users. As one developer says, “It’s just not cost-effective.”

The Wall Street Journal notes that while over 148 million people make use of Cortana on a monthly basis, only a few of them actively engage with it by speech with most preferring to use essentially as a souped-up version of Windows Search.

Microsoft really wants to move past that, but it’s unclear how it would do so, The hardware just isn’t there yet.

Source: Wall Street Journal