Cortana to other countries only in 2016 say Microsoft

[Vitor Salvatore Pierce]

"The development of Cortana, obviously as you can imagine, is a complex development. It includes both the speech recognition part, which is probably the most difficult for us because of variations in age, accent, if the person is with cold or flu, hoarse. All this has to be taken into consideration in the algorithm. And we have the text-to-speech, which is to transform text into speech to sound natural. There is a whole study on deconstructing the language in terms of phonemes, how to combine them in a way that sounds natural and don't get a robotic voice. What we have to say on this subject is:
Cortana is under development in Portuguese and Microsoft intends to expand Cortana languages in a very aggressive way on 2016"

Build Tour S?o Paulo!

Translated by me.
2:24:00
Build on Livestream

 

[theefman]

Too busy working on the ios and android versions.....

 

[hotphil]

Too busy working on the ios and android versions.....

Sadly, that's probably quite close to the truth.

 

[neo158]

That's better than a TBA though, isn't it!!?!

Cortana isn't just the frontend you see on the phone, Microsoft need to implement all the backend services that power Cortana as well and that takes time. Not only that but they also need to localise it as well, having suggestions for the UK, US or China wouldn't be very helpful in, say, Sweden would it?

 

[Vitor Salvatore Pierce]

Sadly, that's probably quite close to the truth.

I think the problem was Windows 10....

 

[hotphil]

I think the problem was Windows 10....

OS has very little to do with Cortana. She's mostly about the back end. Ooooh err.

 

[Vitor Salvatore Pierce]

OS has very little to do with Cortana. She's mostly about the back end. Ooooh err.

Yes, but they had to focus on Windows 10...

 

[Canjok]

In Germany, Cortana understands my language really well. The thing missing are the functions and her voice. Nearly everything she says is computer generated and trust me, she doesn't do this often. Mostly she even has grammar mistakes like it was copied from Google Translator. It would be nice to know how and who implements Cortana for other countries. So all in all I think in Germany it will also be functional in 2016 or later. At the moment, the pace is just too slow and I don't think Microsoft does magic when Windows 10 will be released.

 

[a5cent]

Yes, but they had to focus on Windows 10...

Nope. Completely different team, with different people, and largely different skills.

 

[Kavu2]

Cortana expansion to new markets....
via Joe Belfiore...
Cortana brings Cultural Savviness to New Markets | Blogging Windows

text of interest (emphasis is mine)
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As we?ve already announced, on July 29th, Cortana will debut on Windows 10 in seven countries: the U.S., UK, China, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. Today we?re announcing that over the coming months, Cortana will be available to customers in the Windows Insider Program in Japan and Australia, and in English in Canada and India. Later this year, Cortana will also be available to Windows Insiders in Brazil and Mexico, and in French in Canada.
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[Dee Norbert]

I want in in Romanian and Hungarian too

 

[astondg]

Today we’re announcing that over the coming months, Cortana will be available to customers in the Windows Insider Program in Japan and Australia, and in English in Canada and India. Later this year, Cortana will also be available to Windows Insiders in Brazil and Mexico, and in French in Canada.

I want to know if that means Cortana proper or Cortana Alpha.