Microsoft"s Javier Soltero is moving into a new role as corporate vice president for Cortana, according to a report from Axios. Soltero originally came onboard when the company acquired Acompli, which he co-founded. Acompli eventually became Outlook Mobile, and Javier eventually rose to the position of corporate vice president for the Office Product Group.
Soltero understands that his new role is going to be challenging. After all, Cortana is on by default on all Windows 10 products; however, Microsoft still struggles to get users to go out of their way to install the Cortana app on their Android and iOS mobile devices. On top of that, there"s still only one Cortana smart speaker on the market, the Harman Kardon Invoke, and that hasn"t gained nearly as much traction as Amazon"s Echo or Google"s Home.
"The real contest is about which company users will choose and entrust with essentially all of they [sic] information or the majority of their information," Soltero told Axios. "A very private but mediocre experience will not win."
Aside from privacy, one of the key value propositions to Cortana has been its ability to work between devices. For example, users could set a location-based reminder from their desktop PC or their Xbox, and receive the notification on their phone. With Alexa now penetrating the Windows 10 PC market, even that feature is becoming less valuable.