Cortana puts Siri to shame in Microsoft's latest ad

cortana puts siri shame microsofts latest ad vs — Image used with permission by copyright holder

How important is the digital assistant living inside your phone when it comes time to choose a new handset? The battle between Android, iOS and Windows Phone is quickly becoming a battle between Google Now, Siri and Cortana, and each intelligent assistant app has its own set of advantages and disadvantages to consider.

Microsoft is certainly keen to play up the benefits of having Cortana on your side in a new advert that compares it directly with Siri. The ad highlights Cortana’s ability to display reminders based on an incoming call or text (show a birthday reminder the next time your wife calls for example) and the way in which it can warn you about traffic delays. The ad suggests that all Siri has done in the meantime is move to a bigger phone.

Neither of these Cortana features has an exact equivalent in Apple’s digital assistant app at the moment and it’s not the first Microsoft Lumia ad to indulge in a spot of Siri-bashing either — a similar clip released in September made much of Windows Phone’s ability to remember news stories and preferred locations when looking for answers. Another ad along the same lines appeared back in July.

Of course, iOS has its own strengths, such as an app store with a breadth and quality that Microsoft can only dream of, as well as tight integration with OS X Yosemite. As we’ve seen with Google Now appearing in Chrome and Cortana coming to Windows 10, the importance of these digital assistants is only going to get greater as time goes on.

Are these kind of adverts all light-hearted fun? Or would you rather phone manufacturers stuck to promoting their own wares rather than criticizing the approaches of others? Let us know in the comments.

Cortana runs rings around Siri — at least according to Microsoft

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