Cortana highlights Siri’s failings in new Microsoft ad

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As Apple knows full well, it’s lonely at the top!

As if the constant shots from Samsung weren’t enough, Microsoft has just unleashed a new ad pitting its Cortana virtual assistant against Apple’s Siri. The ad, for those who can’t view it, begins with Siri ‘singing’ “I feel pretty, oh so pretty” into a mirror, only for the HTC One M8 with Windows to turn up, apparently dazzling the iPhone 5s with its superior size.

“Hi Cortana, you look nice,” says the iPhone 5s.

Cortana goes on to show that she’s “more than a pretty face” by demonstrating the ability to work with traffic update and user calendars to hand out accurate mapping information. The ad then boasts about the phone’s two front-facing speakers.

“Oh, I only have one,” Siri says as the punchline. “And I’m sitting on it.”

This isn’t the first time that Microsoft has bragged about the apparent superiority of its Cortana virtual assistant over Siri. An earlier ad depicted a face-off between the two virtual assistants, based around various anniversary-related questions.

“Now that is a smart phone.” Siri was left fuming at the end of the first commercial.

While it’s kind of understandable that other companies would want to knock Apple off its perch in the smartphone category, just for the sake of originality it would be nice to see an ad from one of Cupertino’s rivals that didn’t focus half its commercial time on perceived weaknesses in Apple’s own products.

Still, while Apple’s astride the high tech world and Microsoft is laying off 18,000 of its employees in its biggest downsizing yet, it’s understandable.

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