With the Windows Phone 8.1 Update, Cortana has been made available for people in China and the UK as a “beta” and in Canada, Australia and India as an “alpha”.
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Microsoft announced updates to Windows Phone 8.1 which included features that will bring the availability of Cortana in countries like India, China, Canada, Australia and the UK. Windows Phone 8.1 update 1 will be available in preview form for developers in next week, while the update will be rolled out to devices in the coming months.
Joe Belfiore, said in the blog post, “Today [Wednesday] I am in China to talk about how we’re continuing this vision in the very first update to Windows Phone 8.1, which we’re making available in preview form for developers next week. This update has some great new features for everyone around the world, and in particular we also included some that were completely customized for and by people in China.” Mr. Belfiore is the Corporate Vice President and Manager for Windows Phone Program Management in Microsoft.
He further elaborated, saying, “We know there has been a lot of enthusiasm about Cortana in many other markets, and we wanted to give more people the ability to start using Cortana. Therefore, we’re also starting a new “alpha” program in three countries: Canada, India, and Australia. This early adopter program will be opt-in and give people the ability to try Cortana using English language models from the US and the UK.”
With Windows Phone 8.1 Update, UK version of Cortana has been tailored to support UK spellings and pronunciations. It also features information about London Stock Exchange, local sports, and other details.
Cortana in China will support Mandarin and simplified characters. It will also contain features like data relating to temperature change and air quality, warnings on driving restrictions, information relating to location of celebrities, and lots more.
Here’s a screenshot of Cortana in Chinese:
Wrapping up
Given the potential size of Chinese market for Windows Phone, it does make sense to localize Cortana. If Microsoft is successful in cracking that market, it can greatly boost the unit volume.
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