Microsoft maybe considered as the underdog in the mobile phone market with Windows Phones lagging way behind iOS and Android phones but the company's newly released Windows Phone operating system might just be able to make loyal users of Apple and Google's Android take a second look.

Windows Phone 8.1, which Microsoft released for developers on Monday, offers a number of new features with some, apparently, rivaling those found in Google and Apple smartphone operating systems. The new update brings home screen wallpapers, a notification center and extra tiles on the Start screen. The most notable of the new features, however, is the voice assistant Cortana.

Cortana is the counterpart of Apple's Siri and Google's Google Now. The new Windows Phone digital assistant technology, which is named after the artificially intelligent (AI) character in Microsoft's Halo video game series, can help users do a search on Bing, get directions, set reminders, call and text contacts, create calendar events, verbally take down notes and play music on the phone.

While Microsoft has apparently taken cue from the success of Apple's Siri, its new digital assistant appears to have better features if not more potentials than Siri and Google Now. Cortana, for instance, can control the phone's quiet hours as well as set up reminders that would show up the next time you call a particular contact.

"I see Cortana as a more advanced personal assistant than Siri -- at least it promises to be," said Rob Sanfilippo, from Directions On Microsoft, which provides research and information on Microsoft technology. "It can call in the functionality of apps on a phone. As long as the developer of an app allows Cortana to access an app, Cortana can perform functions within an app. Siri can't do that."

Unfortunately, because Cortana is still in beta, there are still a few bugs and some features do not yet work correctly. Microsoft, however, said that Cortana will "learn" and become smarter as users interact with her.

Cortana may be the update's show stopper but there are a number of other additions to Windows' operating system as well. The Wi-Fi Sense, for instance, can make it easier to connect to pubic wireless networks. It can automatically accept the" terms of use" that you would otherwise have to manually do with some Wi-Fi hotspots. The Data Sense, on the other hand, can help users save on cellular data usage and costs as it can defer some data-dependent tasks until a Wi-Fi connection becomes available.