Cortana only starting in the US

[Jay Bennett]

Just wanted to share my disappointment (with many of you I'm sure) at the news Cortana will go into beta only in the US to begin with. Here's hoping she'll make her way to the rest of us really soon!

 

[neo158]

Just wanted to share my disappointment (with many of you I'm sure) at the news Cortana will go into beta only in the US to begin with. Here's hoping she'll make her way to the rest of us really soon!

Well AFAIK it's only a backend update that's needed to enable the extra functions, I assume launching apps and performing searches will work just fine, as Cortana essentially replaces Bing on the search button.

 

[Panathas]

They just don't care about us dude. It's just US, **** the rest. At least that's how it feels. Perhaps rest of world should also stop to care about them, 16% market share in Italy, about 10% in UK, about 8% in Germany. And USA? 2-3%? Its their home market, but ONLY US? At least bring 2-3 features to the others like google started with google now. Or do it correct like apple did it with siri.

Sent from my Lumia 1020 using Tapatalk

 

[Zeem Frostmaw]

It's unfortunate, but since it's been confirmed for the UK I can wait. It's not like Bing Rewards where it's go Murrica or go home...

 

[Aardappelboom]

Well AFAIK it's only a backend update that's needed to enable the extra functions, I assume launching apps and performing searches will work just fine, as Cortana essentially replaces Bing on the search button.

Are you sure about that? I'm kind of wondering how MS is planning to roll out 8.1 for non-cortana countries. Do we keep the tell-me feature for now? Do we get to see cortana when we search for stuff, do we just keep using bing like it used to work?

I'm a bit worried to be honest by how much effor they put into cortana, revealing all those awesome features that just might not be available in other countries (quiet hours, daily glance, music identification...) They've gone a long way to integrate cortana into the entire OS, a lack of this feature might just cripple the OS quite a bit. (Skype integration is probably not going to happen without cortana...)

 

[neo158]

They just don't care about us dude. It's just US, **** the rest. At least that's how it feels. Perhaps rest of world should also stop to care about them, 16% market share in Italy, about 10% in UK, about 8% in Germany. And USA? 2-3%? Its their home market, but ONLY US? At least bring 2-3 features to the others like google started with google now. Or do it correct like apple did it with siri.

Sent from my Lumia 1020 using Tapatalk

In fact it's sensible for a beta to be tested with 2-3% of users than 10%. It means that the rest of the world will get a fully functioning version instead.

 

[neo158]

Are you sure about that? I'm kind of wondering how MS is planning to roll out 8.1 for non-cortana countries. Do we keep the tell-me feature for now? Do we get to see cortana when we search for stuff, do we just keep using bing like it used to work?

I'm a bit worried to be honest by how much effor they put into cortana, revealing all those awesome features that just might not be available in other countries (quiet hours, daily glance, music identification...) They've gone a long way to integrate cortana into the entire OS, a lack of this feature might just cripple the OS quite a bit. (Skype integration is probably not going to happen without cortana...)

Yes, because I watched the keynote. Which is why I think that in countries outside the US Cortana will replace the functions of both Bing search and TellMe but won't have any of the more advanced functions until the backend is updated. Cortana is confirmed for other countries so it will get there eventually.

 

[Panathas]

In fact it's sensible for a beta to be tested with 2-3% of users than 10%. It means that the rest of the world will get a fully functioning version instead.

So they do this to not disappoint the other countries? Aaaa, okay, now I'm happy...





Sent from my Lumia 1020 using Tapatalk

 

[John20212]

Just wanted to share my disappointment (with many of you I'm sure) at the news Cortana will go into beta only in the US to begin with. Here's hoping she'll make her way to the rest of us really soon!

Do you know on what bases it's going to be limited? Is it going to be based on phone ROM; or MS account region; or phone region settings; or SIM card location; or ...?

 

[BIGPADDY]

I'm disappointed that there not bringing this feature to the UK such a shame!

 

[Laura Knotek]

In fact it's sensible for a beta to be tested with 2-3% of users than 10%. It means that the rest of the world will get a fully functioning version instead.

I wonder how many US users will actually try it, though. It doesn't interest me. I don't even like talking ON the phone, so I'm not going to talk TO a phone.

 

[AzmoD3uS]

This move is akin to Kinect voice commands when Kinect first came out. I was privileged enough to be part of the Kinect Beta and a lot of people complained why Kinect voice commands were limited to US initially, even though they belonged to different countries but spoke english.

But the truth is, even the slightest accent caused problems with the hardware recognizing a command. They needed to ensure that other countries would get a good experience before rolling it out. So i'm pretty sure they're rolling it out as a beta in the US first to ensure that it learns and MS too learns how to make it work for other languages and gradually, as the service improves, it will be rolled out a bit at a time to other countries and/or languages.

 

[bayanii]

This move is akin to Kinect voice commands when Kinect first came out. I was privileged enough to be part of the Kinect Beta. They needed to ensure that other countries would get a good experience before rolling it out.

A lot of people complained why Kinect voice commands were limited to US initially, even though they belonged to different countries but spoke english. But the truth is, even the slightest accent caused problems with the hardware recognizing a command.

They're rolling it out as a beta in the US to ensure that it learns and they learn how to make it work for other languages and gradually, as the service improves, it will be rolled out.

Yes

 

[Laura Knotek]

This move is akin to Kinect voice commands when Kinect first came out. I was privileged enough to be part of the Kinect Beta and a lot of people complained why Kinect voice commands were limited to US initially, even though they belonged to different countries but spoke english.

But the truth is, even the slightest accent caused problems with the hardware recognizing a command. They needed to ensure that other countries would get a good experience before rolling it out. So i'm pretty sure they're rolling it out as a beta in the US first to ensure that it learns and MS too learns how to make it work for other languages and gradually, as the service improves, it will be rolled out a bit at a time to other countries and/or languages.

How well did Kinect voice work in the Beta version? I think US would actually be difficult, due to all the different regional accents/dialects.

 

[Markham Ranja]

This move is akin to Kinect voice commands when Kinect first came out. I was privileged enough to be part of the Kinect Beta and a lot of people complained why Kinect voice commands were limited to US initially, even though they belonged to different countries but spoke english.

But the truth is, even the slightest accent caused problems with the hardware recognizing a command. They needed to ensure that other countries would get a good experience before rolling it out. So i'm pretty sure they're rolling it out as a beta in the US first to ensure that it learns and MS too learns how to make it work for other languages and gradually, as the service improves, it will be rolled out a bit at a time to other countries and/or languages.

That makes no sense. If ever there were a language/dialect with a HUGE quantity of voice training data, it is the US English variant. MS should be launching in at least all the major English-speaking countries if this were true.

 

[John20212]

How well did Kinect voice work in the Beta version? I think US would actually be difficult, due to all the different regional accents/dialects.

This was exactly my thought, the US only is a poor excuse based on language and accent considerations. Why not just let everyone who wants to try it, to try it? They can have a Beta disclaimer or whatever, but this geographic limitation in todays globalized world is completely stupid.

 

[neonspark]

what is more baffling, WP's growing markets are Europe and Latin America. Guess who isn't getting this?. instead of doubling down rewarding users where they are LOVING you with nice features first, they give them the finger. when will they learn to stop the war on their customers? In fact the US market should be a secondary concern for Redmond at this point since they've thrown everything US first and what was the result? 4% share?

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

Maybe because I am US but it makes sense to release a Beta version in a smaller market vs running the risk of angering/frustrating your larger user base if Cortana is buggy or there are issues.

Now within 6-8 months(aka the rest of 2014) if they have not released it to other countries besides Uk, there will be an issue.

Question...Does Siri/Google Now work in other countries that don't use English as a first language? Like do they speak in the country's native language?

 

[Dantekai14]

Maybe because I am US but it makes sense to release a Beta version in a smaller market vs running the risk of angering/frustrating your larger user base if Cortana is buggy or there are issues.

Now within 6-8 months(aka the rest of 2014) if they have not released it to other countries besides Uk, there will be an issue.

Question...Does Siri/Google Now work in other countries that don't use English as a first language? Like do they speak in the country's native language?

MS can't provide Cortana to other counties because till now they only focus USA.
Their services like bing never meant for other countries.

So, MS doesn't have a choice but to release Cortana in USA only.

I think it's time MS start think global not just USA.

and please enough with that excuses. We all know better why Cortana isn't release for rest of the world.

 

[uopjo6]

I'm done waiting. Been a fan since L800 and each year it was exciting seeing improvements. I ain't waiting a couple more months, maybe even a year for the next new feature. Screw that. I still can't send files with Skype to my clients it's embarrassing.