Microsoft today made official what had been rumored two months ago: It will release Android and iOS mobile apps that feature Cortana, the Redmond, Wash. company’s intelligent assistant.

“It all starts with the big picture,” Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, argued in a Tuesday interview. “Microsoft wants to provide a connected experience with all a customer’s devices. Windows is nowhere in phone, nowhere in tablets, so they have to provide an experience that [crosses] these platform lines.”

The Android app will debut next month, and the iOS version later this year, Joe Belfiore, who leads Windows design at Microsoft, said in a blog post.

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