Is there anything more awkward for a tech powerhouse than developing a product and then not only admitting another company does it better, but then selling it for them? Probably not, but Microsoft doesn’t seem so fussed.
You may remember that Microsoft announced that it was bringing Alexa support to its Cortana platform in the summer – well, since the move Microsoft has really taken a shine to the Amazon smart assistant (and we mean really).
Last week Microsoft started stocking both the latest generation and older version of the Amazon Echo Dot speaker both virtually and physically in its stores. Then, in a rather strange move, it then pulled the products online.
Whether a weird PR stunt or just taken aback from how much attention the move received, the decision shows what many suspected: Microsoft really isn’t getting behind growing and developing the functionality of its own voice-controlled platform (despite it being rolled out on a host of Microsoft products).
Microsoft’s strategy is evidently shifting – it originally threw Cortana into the voice assistant mix hoping it could provide real competition to the likes of Alexa and Google Assistant, but with this move, and the rumoured departure of Javier Soltero, the VP leading all things Cortana, it’s clear this is not the plan. Instead, Cortana is seemingly taking a backseat for other more chatbot-related tasks as it looks to Amazon to support an actual ecosystem.
Sorry to any fans of Cortana, but Microsoft’s attention seems to be elsewhere now (in typical Microsoft fashion..)