Microsoft is considering bringing Cortana to Android and iOS

Cortana didn’t officially appear until April and won’t roll out to most users for a few weeks yet, but it’s already been attracting a lot of positive attention as it looks to take on Google Now and Siri in the battle of the digital assistants. If comments made this week by Microsoft staff are anything to go by, the app could eventually make its way to iOS and Android too. First of all, those comments in full. “It’s a bit of a head-scratcher for us right now,” said Windows Phone group program manager Marcus Ash, as reported by GeekWire, so Redmond chiefs are obviously thinking about it. “If you play this out five to ten years, and these assistants become the reason you choose Android or iOS or Windows, then what’s our position? Could Cortana be the thing that, as a Windows user, [makes me feel like] I’ve got to get a Windows phone?” he added during a Q&A session at a conference in Seattle.

Microsoft is grappling internally with the question of whether to expand its Cortana virtual assistant to Android and iPhone — weighing the needs of multi-platform users against the competitive differentiation that the technology could give to Windows devices. “It’s a bit of a head-scratcher for us right now,” acknowledged Marcus Ash, a group program manager for Windows Phone, when he was asked about Cortana’s possible future on Android and iOS at the SMX Advanced search marketing conference in Seattle today. For example, a Windows PC user who uses an Android phone could find Cortana on the desktop or tablet to be an incomplete experience if the virtual assistant wasn’t able to take into account activity on the phone, and interact with the user via that device. However, Ash added, “It’s interesting to think about the future of these assistants and whether they become a reason to buy into the ecosystem. That is the other tension we have. If you play this out five to ten years, and these assistants become the reason you choose Android or iOS or Windows, then what’s our position? Could Cortana be the thing that, as a Windows user, (makes me feel like) I’ve got to get a Windows phone?”