Ever since Amazon’s Echo speaker hit the market, the competition has been working on their own devices. Google has already jumped in with Google Home, Apple is coming with HomePod and now the Bixby speaker from Samsung will be here in 2018. Yes, the Bixby speaker. There have been many jokes at Bixby’s expense as many users don’t see the need for yet another AI assistant. But Samsung has always done what they wanted to and it is clear that Bixby is a priority for the company.
The new Bixby speaker is said to be able to control your smart connected home as well as have high-quality audio. Of course, since it is Samsung, the speaker will integrate seamlessly with Samsung’s phones, TV’s and other Bixby connected devices. It’s unclear what other apps and software the Bixby speaker will work with. It’s very clear that it will work with all things Samsung. I imagine services like Pandora and Spotify will be available. But services like Google Play Music and YouTube may not, but we don’t know for sure. Pricing for the new Samsung speaker is said to be $200USD. That puts the device squarely in the middle of the Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod.
Samsung’s pricing and release plans are still fluid and may change, the people familiar with the speaker’s development said. The company is still working on improving the device’s ability to conduct voice-based web searches, one of the people said.
Web searches and relevant information is going to be key. Right now both Alexa and Google Home do one thing better than the other but they don’t do all of the things. The Apple HomePod isn’t even on the market yet but rumor is Apple is concentrating more on entertainment and sound. So if Samsung can figure out how to merge the best of Echo and the best of Google Home. They could actually have something worth checking out in 2018. We will be looking for the Bixby speaker at CES 2018, perhaps it will make an appearance.
What do you think of Samsung jumping into the smart speaker space? Let us know in the comments below, or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-14/samsung-is-said-to-target-first-half-of-2018-for-smart-speaker” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Bloomberg[/button]
