Love it or hate it, Samsung is moving ahead with their virtual assistant Bixby, and as we heard a few months back they also have designs on moving into the growing smart speaker market, with plans to launch the device in the first half of next year.
The information confirms an earlier report that Samsung was wanting to launch a Bixby powered speaker. In their report, which is based on information from the usual sources who did not wish to be named, Bloomberg says that Samsung wants to focus on ‘audio quality and the management of connected home appliances such as lights and locks’.
It’s believed that Samsung will make the Bixby powered speaker available in multiple markets, with the price point apparently looking to be around the $200USD mark.
Samsung has always maintained that Bixby is different from other Assistants on the market, positioning it more as a virtual assistant for your devices, announcing at launch that Bixby would make its way into other Samsung appliances including TVs, Air Conditioners and more in the future. A connected relationship between Bixby powered devices would allow greater control around the home, making a full Samsung powered home more attractive – if it works.
We’ve had less than stellar results using Bixby, with the assistant only supporting U.S. English and Korean currently. Samsung’s Bixby has been available in Australia and over 200 countries around the world since late August so it’s expected that additional voice data should now be available to model support for more languages.
According to reports, Samsung are apparently looking to launch the new Galaxy S9 (and S9+?) at an event around Mobile World Congress, which could be the point at which they at least announce the new speaker. There’s not a lot of love for Bixby out there, so perhaps a gift with purchase for the S9 launch may make it a bit more attractive to users.
Would you use or purchase a Bixby powered speaker?
Sure , I’d give it a run , while there are the usual ai speakers out there that do a pretty good job in general , there are still things in some areas they still can’t do or do well ,
much like bixby , but in the areas that bixby work , it is also pretty good ..
I think as an on device assistant it may do ok..