Cortana could be US only

[foxbat121]

Interesting! Do you think Microsoft might restrict services outside the of United States for legal reasons? That would be logical, except it doesn't seem Apple & Google are quite so US centric, so maybe it isn't logical... rly:

The speech portion of Google Now on my Nexus 5 is US only feature. If you set your phone region to anything other than US, it will not work.

I think there are legal issues as well (primary privacy issues).

 

[a5cent]

It's clear that many people here have never created an artificial intelligence engine....

Just to be clear, I'm not complaining that Cortana might initially not be available to people outside the U.S. The opposite would have surprised me more. My points are these:

1)
MS has long struggled to grasp that where you live has nothing to do with your language preference. Almost all of their services are affected in one way or another. Millions of people outside the U.S. speak English with a perfect U.S. accent, possibly because they were born and raised in the States, because they once worked there, studied there, or simply were good learners and picked up the accent from U.S. movies and music. In a nutshell: anybody who thinks it makes sense to restrict a service to the U.S. because supposedly nobody outside the U.S. speaks U.S. English, needs to get their head examined. A few of my neighbours are from the U.S. and I know they would all agree.

2)
The problem is not that MS prioritizes their home market. That is understandable. Most people have no problem accepting some delay. The problem is the degree to which MS prioritizes the U.S. differently from the rest of the world. Compounding that problem is the fact that the competition (Apple, Google, even Nokia) simply does a much better job, as they can consistently role out their services globally within a few months. On the other hand, some people have been waiting for Xbox Music for three years now. I'll actually be surprised if by 2016, Cortana offers international consumers the same experience as it does U.S. consumers. All humans instinctively react to what they feel is unfair treatment. MS' international customers pay the same price for MS' products and services. Should they not also be getting the same services within a reasonable time frame?

 

[neo158]

The speech portion of Google Now on my Nexus 5 is US only feature. If you set your phone region to anything other than US, it will not work.

I think there are legal issues as well (primary privacy issues).

Not strictly true, the voice portion of Google Now also works in the UK. I was using it on my Galaxy Nexus.

 

[hopmedic]

I'm not saying that I agree or disagree with the approach that Microsoft takes. But I'm also not claiming to know anything about how much work is involved in creating a realistic AI service. This is something that people have been trying to do since the beginning of modern computing, and so far, it's done pretty well. But it sounds to me like Cortana is going to surpass anything any of us have ever seen, and that's got to involve work.

Localizing to different countries doesn't just involve language. I would venture to guess that language is the biggest part, but still, there is more to it than that. I know that I have not studied international law, and I've been surprised at some of the privacy suits that I've read about in the EU, so I can guess that law is one barrier to overcome.

I'm just saying that there's a lot more to this than what any of us can probably guess. That's all.

 

[foxbat121]

Not strictly true, the voice portion of Google Now also works in the UK. I was using it on my Galaxy Nexus.

I was talking about the Nexus 5's version (latest and greatest) that you don't have to press any buttons.

I'm not saying that I agree or disagree with the approach that Microsoft takes. But I'm also not claiming to know anything about how much work is involved in creating a realistic AI service. This is something that people have been trying to do since the beginning of modern computing, and so far, it's done pretty well. But it sounds to me like Cortana is going to surpass anything any of us have ever seen, and that's got to involve work.

Localizing to different countries doesn't just involve language. I would venture to guess that language is the biggest part, but still, there is more to it than that. I know that I have not studied international law, and I've been surprised at some of the privacy suits that I've read about in the EU, so I can guess that law is one barrier to overcome.

I'm just saying that there's a lot more to this than what any of us can probably guess. That's all.

In my experience, language is the easiest thing to tackle in software. Culture is a totally different animal.

 

[Kage Maru]

I think one thing that should be kept in mind is the rumor points to this being a Beta release, not an official release. For all we know, the official release may not hit the US until late this year or even next year.

Also while it's true that the US is one of their weaker markets, an argument can be made that this is one of the reasons they need to be more aggressive in this region with features. I understand and agree that it would suck to be left out of this feature when your region supports the platform much better than the US market has, but this is not a new thing in the technology world. Almost every tech company does this same thing to some extent.

Last, as others have pointed out, there may be legal barriers on top of the language barriers if this is indeed exclusive to the US for this year. I also wonder if accents have an effect for other countries that also speak English.

Edit: To change the topic a bit, I really hope it's true that Jen is voicing the AI assistant. I said her voice would be perfect when rumors first surfaced. I also hope we don't have to say Bing, but instead could say Cortana. However it's MS and I can see a logical and marketing reason for having people say Bing when wanting to address the AI assistant.

It's clear that many people here have never created an artificial intelligence engine....

Though I've never made such an engine, I was thinking the same thing. Unfortunately it's too easy to assume decisions are made in the tech/software world without good reason when more often than not there is a logical explanation surrounding many circumstances.

 

[_Emi_]

1. its a rumor
2. its language we are talking about, do you think to get a language support its just to say "oh it will take 5 minutes for the program to understand other languages" just look at kinect it couldnt be released in alot more countries because it would have been silly to release it and then people not being able to use the voice features.
understand?
and of course its not like you cant change region in WP to download the app anyway, do it and download it and you will have it.

and 3. again its just a rumor from a site that has not much to offer like its wmpoweruser, why havent Rubino or someone at WPcentral say anything about it? because its too early to actually care about it.

the funny part its you wont even use the voice language, just like you dont use it today. 5 minutes and you will forget about it, yet you complain about it like if it was released and it wasnt just a rumor.

 

[a5cent]

its language we are talking about.

You probably didn't read earlier posts. That's the whole point. It's not language that we are talking about. The language setting is irrelevant. What is relevant is the immutable country code of your Microsoft Account, i.e. where you live, which again has nothing to do with language preference. Even if you're happy with U.S. English, if you're outside the U.S., you still won't get those services.

Even if it was about language, MS already has that technology in place. If it was only about language support, then there is nothing holding MS back from releasing Cortana in a whole host of languages, today. TellMe already supported German speech recognition on WP7 Mango. The Xbox One is fine with German as well. For the last time... language is not the issue here.

 

[Sam Sabri]

Don't put much weight on what that blog post from MSnerd said about "Cortana".

 

[Indistinguishable]

Don't put much weight on what that blog post from MSnerd said about "Cortana".

I don't... But i'll still choose to believe/hope that Jen Taylor will be the voice of Cortana

 

[tbonecopper]

Don't put much weight on what that blog post from MSnerd said about "Cortana".

Something you wish to share with the class, Sam?

 

[neo158]

You probably didn't read earlier posts. That's the whole point. It's not language that we are talking about. The language setting is irrelevant. What is relevant is the immutable country code of your Microsoft Account, i.e. where you live, which again has nothing to do with language preference. Even if you're happy with U.S. English, if you're outside the U.S., you still won't get those services.

Even if it was about language, MS already has that technology in place. If it was only about language support, then there is nothing holding MS back from releasing Cortana in a whole host of languages, today. TellMe already supported German speech recognition on WP7 Mango. The Xbox One is fine with German as well. For the last time... language is not the issue here.

Ok, try setting TellMe to English then speak to it in German and see if it still works. Language is very much a big part of the issue, that's the reason why the "beta" version will only be available in the US. Combine that with dialects within a country like the UK and that makes it even harder to get Speech Recognition set up for different languages, why do you think that Xbox One hasn't launched in some countries yet?

It's not a simple 5 minute job to get speech recognition working and by that I mean working correctly for every language in the world. Cortana is more than just voice search like TellMe though, it's essentially an AI engine which, again, takes way more than 5 minutes to get up and running.

 

[Pacus1x]

Don't forget Latin America, there is many WP users in that region more than iOS. Just hope Cortana support for Spanish language.

 

[Kage Maru]

Don't put much weight on what that blog post from MSnerd said about "Cortana".

I meant to ask earlier, is this MSnerd at all reliable? I'm guessing not with your post, but still I was wondering what his track record has been.

 

[a5cent]

Ok, try setting TellMe to English then speak to it in German and see if it still works. Language is very much a big part of the issue.

I think you are confused. Why would anyone want to do that? Yes, language is a big part of the pie, but like I said, that part is solved. If you don't believe it is solved, then please explain what exactly you think is still missing. I don't know exactly what Cortana is intended to do, but assuming it's not entirely different from Siri or Google Now, I can think of a couple dozen things Microsoft yet needs to implement. Speech recognition is not one of them. Like I said, WP has supported speech recognition for many languages for years. That can't be the reason to not role out Cortana globally. If you think it is, tell me exactly why.

It's not a simple 5 minute job to get speech recognition working and by that I mean working correctly for every language in the world.

I think I understand that better than most here. Again, the investments in speech recognition have been ongoing for over a decade. Also, MS doesn't need to get it working for every language in the world, but how about not using language as an excuse for not rolling Cortana out in those countries where MS already has great support for the local languages... German is just one example.

And finally, how about NEVER using language as an excuse to restrict a service geographically... like I said... there are millions of people outside the U.S. that are just fine using U.S. English on their devices. Even if non-English language recognition was a problem (which it isn't) it still wouldn't be a reason to exclude that group of people from using the service.

 

[Moiz Mian]

Don't put much weight on what that blog post from MSnerd said about "Cortana".

Can you maybe post an article or a comment here on the validity of MSnerd's post? And maybe an analysis of his track record?

 

[John20212]

Cortana will only be available in other countries from 2015 - 2016 and so on

What is your opinion as a non american like me ?

If the rumor is true ofcourse do you feel violated?

if it proves to be true it would probably be Microsoft's biggest **** up to date and would probably turn a lot of people away from WP, even those who supported it before. especially in EU.
But then again MS ******* itself over isn't new, Bing is already a laughing stock anywhere outside the US because of MS's poor *** support for non-US customers.

 

[meddyrainzo]

Here is the link :
Report: Microsoft’s Cortana Voice Assistant Coming To US Windows Phone Devices In April | WMPoweruser

If you read the actual post from MSFTNerd, it is Cortana on Windows and Xbox that would be available in 2015-2016. Poor journalism on the part of wmpoweruser.
Besides, all these are rumors. If this was true, I think we would have known about it long before now

 

[neo158]

I think you are confused. Why would anyone want to do that? Yes, language is a big part of the pie, but like I said, that part is solved. If you don't believe it is solved, then please explain what exactly you think is still missing. I don't know exactly what Cortana is intended to do, but assuming it's not entirely different from Siri or Google Now, I can think of a couple dozen things Microsoft yet needs to implement. Speech recognition is not one of them. Like I said, WP has supported speech recognition for many languages for years. That can't be the reason to not role out Cortana globally. If you think it is, tell me exactly why.



I think I understand that better than most here. Again, the investments in speech recognition have been ongoing for over a decade. Also, MS doesn't need to get it working for every language in the world, but how about not using language as an excuse for not rolling Cortana out in those countries where MS already has great support for the local languages... German is just one example.

And finally, how about NEVER using language as an excuse to restrict a service geographically... like I said... there are millions of people outside the U.S. that are just fine using U.S. English on their devices. Even if non-English language recognition was a problem (which it isn't) it still wouldn't be a reason to exclude that group of people from using the service.

I understand what you're saying but what about regional dialects and accents, two areas that speech recognition has issues with and something that still isn't solved, even with Google Now.

 

[Mr Lebowski]

So is MS supposed to make it available in every language where they are sold, right from the start ? maybe, but that's an easy thing to do
as they test a beta version...I don't know -just wondering. ? Mandarin is the most spoken language followed by English and Hindustani
but English is the most second language spoken by far and more countries have English as the official language that any other language,
& English still is the language of commerce. Maybe MS should pic the top 3 languages spoken by sales numbers and start with that. :smile:

And you know if MS was a French company you'd only see French :wink: