Cortana is Window’s Phone’s Hero Feature!
Cortana, unlike Siri and Google Now, due to the runaway success and current pop culture appeal of the Halo franchise of which “she” is a part, is a smartphone feature with the potential ability to be the selling point for millions of devices!
Cortana: “Her Story Continues With You” – Prelude
Halo’s Cortana is the popular AI Assistant to Master Chief from the highly successful Halo gaming franchise which is set 500 years in the future. This franchise spans 15 years, several games, novels, collectible’s, digital films and an upcoming Show Time TV series produced by Stephen Spielberg.
My wife and I sporting our Cortana T-Shirts. Microsoft’s Cortana has a pop culture identity, unlike Siri and Google, that transcends the Windows Phone platform of which “she” is currently a part. When is the last time you saw a Siri or Google Now T-Shirt?
I wrote an earlier piece called “The “Halo Effect” – Halo Destiny: Cortana, Her Story Continues With You” – in which I share how Cortana’s back story as part of a HIGHLY popular video game franchise that spans nearly 15 years, which has spawned several sequels, a number of novels by best selling authors, collectibles, web-based films, a professional digital series to be released this Fall with Halo: The Master Chief Collection, a ShowTime TV Show called simply Halo: The TV Show produced by Stephen Spielberg and yet another sequel in the franchise, Halo 5, makes the “character”, Cortana, a pop culture icon.
Halo TV Series Announcement
“She’s” very popular boasting 10s of millions of Halo fans, as a result of her position as an essential assistant in the very involved Halo games. Beyond the games she is part of the enduring works released to the general culture through novels, collectibles and media as well as the soon to debut 2015 ShowTime TV series. No other digital assistant has that degree of pop culture identity independent of the platform of which it is a part.
Microsoft has an incredible hero feature with Cortana which has not only proven to be popular but with her Bing and neural network based foundations she has proven to be, within the 3 months since her debut as a beta via the Developers Preview, a very capable and useful assistant with capabilities surpassing her”older” rivals. People based reminders, where a reminder can be generated specific to an individual are unique to Cortana and the Windows Phone OS of which she is a part. This function of course is in addition to the standard and useful time and location based reminders. Her neural network base which enables her to learn and to offer proactive information sets her well ahead of Siri(Apple has recently invested in neural network technology). Her predictive tech capabilities put her in league with GoogleNow. Yet the addition of her very personal “personality” and the privacy controlling Notebook function sets her ahead of even Google’s capable assistant.
The fact that she will be on EVERY Windows Phone 8 device, because Windows Phone 8 is optimized for low end hardware, gives her a ubiquity her rivals can’t replicate to this point. Yes, Cortana can sell phones. Microsoft just needs to tell the story.
READ THE STORY
The “Halo Effect” – Halo Destiny: Cortana, Her Story Continues With You
https://jltechword.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/windows-phone-the-halo-effect-halo-destiny-cortana-her-story-continues-with-you
The Windows Phone Cortana interface. “She” can be interacted with via Voice OR text unlike Siri and Google now which are restricted to voice interaction.
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