Cortana and Alexa are duelling it out for supremacy on the world stage, with the Amazon Alexa app preparing to launch on the Windows Store. Bringing Alexa to Windows computers expands Amazon's reach into the lives of customers, and may sideswipe Cortana's popularity in the process.
Alexa speaks your language
There has been an unspoken rivalry between Cortana and Alexa for years. Cortana was first an in-game female character on an Xbox video game, before becoming the face and voice of Microsoft's virtual assistant.
The leather-clad frame of Cortana compared to Alexa's sultry voice may have gamers and voice-assistant customers all up in a tizz, but it's the technology and recognition capabilities built in behind each assistant in the cloud that is fuelling debate.
Current consensus is that Alexa is the far superior voice assistant in practical terms, while Microsoft's Cortana may have the better technology base, but needs to learn a few more tricks to become useful to customers.
Look for Cortana and Alexa to co-exist for a a few months before the war erupts.
Until next time,
Xavier Zymantas
XYZtech XYZ Media Group
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