Microsoft launches Cortana personal voice assistant for Windows Phone in China

Microsoft Corp on Wednesday announced the arrival of its new personal voice assistant in China with the latest update to its Windows Phone operating system, in the latest step to fight its way out of the nation's crowded smartphone battleground.

The Windows Phone 8.1 update added features including a digital personal assistant dubbed Cortana, Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president for Windows Phone program at Microsoft, said at a launch event in Beijing.

Users can expect more personal customized experience, Belfiore said, setting out his bullish expectations for Windows Phone's growth with the software improvement.

The landing of Cortana, or nicknamed "Xiao Na" for Chinese users, in the world's largest smartphone market by shipments, came three months after the company's release of the artificial intelligence secretary at a developer confab in San Francisco in April.

Cortana has only been available in the US before Microsoft introduced it to Chinese consumers, who will be able to try out the new personal assistant from next week as part of a developer preview, Belfiore said.

Powered by Microsoft's search engine Bing, Cortana appears to be what Microsoft will bank on to grab some of the limelight from its two biggest rivals - Google Inc and Apple Inc.

The two companies, owners of the world's two top mobile platforms the Android and iOS, both boast their own digital assistant functionalities - Google Now and Apple Siri - for mobile devices running on their respective mobile systems.

But "the new features such as Cortana are unlikely to give a big boost to Windows Phone, which has yet to prove itself in a substantial way," Wang Jun, an industry analyst with Beijing-based consultancy Analysys International, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Despite being the third-largest mobile platform, the share of Windows Phone in the global smartphone market remains far behind that of Android and iOS, signifying challenges for Microsoft.

In the first quarter of the year, Android phones dominated the worldwide market with an 81.1 percent share, followed by Apple's iPhones and Windows Phones with shares of 15.2 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively, according to the latest data from US-based market research firm IDC.

China is the sixth-largest market for Windows Phones, following countries including US, India, Brazil, news portal 163.com reported on July 11.

Windows Phone is unlikely to see any major growth spurt in the near future, Wang said.

Gartner Inc, another US-based research firm, however, issued a somewhat upbeat forecast for the future of Windows Phone. It predicted in a research report released on July 7 that Windows Phone will hit 10 percent market share worldwide by 2018 from 4 percent in 2014.

Meanwhile, Microsoft may face challenge in PC software and service offerings in China. A Chinese regulator said on Tuesday that the firm is being probed for antitrust activities concerning its Windows operating system and Office business software.

The firm said in a statement on Wednesday that it "has always obeyed China's laws and regulations, and will proactively answer any questions the government could possibly ask."