Can voice assistant save Windows Phone China sales?

Absrtact: Microsoft China has been a bit annoying lately. Recently, the State Industrial and commercial administration of the antitrust investigation raid, so that Microsoft in the original advantage of the PC side began to have scruples. On the mobile side, Windows phone's market share has been hovering low, struggling to break the Cho





Microsoft China has been a bit annoying lately.





recently the State Administration for Industry and commerce, "antitrust investigation" raid, so that Microsoft in the original advantage of the PC side began to have scruples. On the mobile side, Windows phone's market share has been hovering low, struggling to break through Android and Apple's "monopoly" of the market.





However, Microsoft has not stopped its pursuit of China, the world's largest handset market. July 30, Microsoft specifically selected in Beijing released its latest mobile operating system update Windows Phone8.1, and focused on the introduction of the Chinese version of the Cortana voice assistant.





at the scene, Microsoft executives spent a lot of time explaining and demonstrating the various features of Cortana. Although Apple's "Siri" three years ago has already made people feel no stranger to the function of voice assistants, the actual operation of Microsoft Cortana does bring about a different experience.




Unlike Siri's
, Cortana more emphasis on the concept of "personal assistant", which can understand the context of user conversations, understand the preferences of different users, and respond.





Joe Belfiore, vice president of Microsoft's PC, tablet and mobile division, made clear to the 21st century Economic report that Cortana's short-term goal was to increase the attractiveness of Windows Phone and boost sales. It may be open to other platforms such as iOS, Android, and others in the future.





in the eyes of Joe, Microsoft has done some basic work on Windows Phone in the past, including lower phone prices, support for more carrier networks, and attracting developers to join. What Microsoft needs now is some of the features that make users "excited". Obviously the introduction of Cortana is the purpose.





But how many people decide to buy a phone just for a function? In other words, how much does Cortana do for Windows Phone's sales promotion?





, vice president of Microsoft Greater China, Ye Shi that she believes Chinese mobile phone users have passed the "white" stage. Integrated Windows Phone will then make changes in experience, functionality, and overall price/performance, and she believes Microsoft will win more markets.





How to "ground gas"





China is the first non-English market for Cortana to enter.




The English version of
Cortana was released in San Francisco this April. Now three months after the launch of the Chinese version is not a simple translation of its Chinese. In fact, according to Yongdong, president of the Microsoft Asia Internet Engineering Institute, the Chinese team has been involved in the development of the Chinese version of Cortana since a year ago.





Microsoft China Team spent a lot of time to make Cortana more "grounded." The Vice president of Microsoft Asia Internet Engineering, Baosteel, briefed the 21st century Economic Report on the differences between the Chinese and British versions.





first in the natural speech recognition technology, obviously Chinese and English recognition, understanding is very different. Microsoft China has been doing this for a long time in the past. For example, some time ago in the social media hype hot "Microsoft small Ice", but also Microsoft Asia Internet Engineering Home Products.





the second is the local customization of some functions for Chinese users. Include air quality reminders, line-limiting information, and the ability to chase local TV shows and focus on celebrities. According to an internal statistic obtained by the reporter, Microsoft has made differentiated customization for the Cortana Chinese version in 15 aspects, such as weather, location, news, flight, dual card and so on. Of course, Microsoft also took a Chinese nickname "Natalie" to the voice assistant.





3rd is the local third party application. Each country and region has its own some popular applications, especially China's special market. According to the reporter understand, Cortana initially selected Tencent micro-letter, Sina Weibo, Air China, Archie Art and other seven applications, users can directly use Cortana voice call these applications. Next, Microsoft will open Cortana API interface to all Chinese application developers, everyone can apply for cooperation with Microsoft.





All these adjustments are designed to make Cortana more grounded and more in line with the needs of Chinese consumers, Baosteel said. The next Cortana will also be integrated with "Little Ice", which is active in social media, to help promote it, it said.





in fact, Cortana's local experience in the Chinese market will be fed back to Microsoft headquarters. In the future Microsoft will enter a new market, all need "grounding gas".





core or for WP ecosystem





Theoretically, Cortana can be opened to other platforms as a super portal to replace the word search, to tell a bigger story.





But Joe Belfiore clearly told reporters that it was a later event. The most important goal of the present Cortana is to enhance the attraction of WP to consumers, and let WP win more market share.





, according to the Research institute IDC report, the 2014 annual WP market share is expected to be 3.5%, with the corresponding is the Android, Apple iOS 80.2% and 14.8% respectively. By 2018, Microsoft's market share is expected to reach 6.4%, Android at 77.6% and Apple iOS 13.7%.





compared with two other giants, Microsoft is still lagging far behind on the mobile side.





But how much improvement does it bring to Microsoft by betting on voice aid? Apple Siri, after all, has long been known, but after the initial freshness, most iphone users have "forgotten" the feature.





in Joe Belfiore's view, the problem of the low usage of Siri is caused by a variety of reasons. For example, the starting mode needs to be long pressed home button, in fact, is "hidden" up, can only use voice dialogue, inconvenient occasions can not text input, in addition, is not enough "smart" and so on.





Joe Belfiore that Cortana can bring a different kind of integration experience to the user. He told reporters that since the release of the beta version of the U.S. market, feedback from user feedback and social media had been positive, and Cortana even had an evening talk show.





　　According to the reporter understands, next month accompanies the domestic manufacturer Hisense a price 599 yuan dual card WP handset release, Cortana will officially open to all Chinese users (now is provides the developer preview version). Will Microsoft be able to impress Chinese consumers? We wait and see. (Edit Lu Aifang Sin Yunwei)