Did Amazon Just Make Microsoft Blink, or Was It Something More?

Did Amazon Just Make Microsoft Blink, or Was It Something More?

The world of voice-activated virtual assistants is becoming a crowded place. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) gave us Siri, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) provided the Google Assistant, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) authored Alexa, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) contributed Cortana, and there are many other smaller examples. So far, none has been crowned king or queen in the space, though there have been plenty of assertions made about which is best. That's why a recent announcement about an alliance between two of the biggest players came as such a surprise.

In a move that turned more than a few heads, tech titans and fierce cloud-computing rivals Amazon and Microsoft announced a partnership to integrate the two companies' digital assistants. The move may not make sense at first glance, but a deeper look reveals the motivation behind the unlikely partnership. 

Seems every tech company has its own virtual digital assistant. Image source: Getty Images.

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Source: Fool.com