Over the past year, Microsoft has been advancing its new vision of "mobile first/cloud first." Voice is emerging as a key player and may ultimately turn into a key profit generator for the company. Microsoft's growing portfolio and power in voice applications is going to have a significant impact upon emerging SmartVoice companies while telephone companies continue to travel down a "dumb pipe" road."
Three key examples to Microsoft's growing voice technology portfolio include the Cortana intelligent assistant, Skype Translator and support of WebRTC in Internet Explorer. Each part blends well with the mobile first/cloud first (M1C1) vision, with the underlying technologies able to be used as building blocks for more sophisticated value-added services.
Microsoft Cortana, an intelligent personal assistant first introduced for Windows Phone and Windows wearable tech is now expected to proliferate to Windows 10 and the Xbox One. People will be able to access it through any Windows platform, including tablets, notebooks and desktop PCs. Cortana is currently region-specific, adapting to the global markets it is (virtually) located in, be it the U.S., the U.K., or China, with global access available by 2015...Read More