Samsung's Bixby Speaker Could Launch Within the First Half of 2018
Samsung is reportedly eyeing to release its Bixby smart speaker within the first half of 2018.
Earlier this year, Samsung confirmed the upcoming launch of a smart speaker supported by its own artificial intelligence technology dubbed as Bixby. The said product was being developed with their acquired company, Harman.
Despite the confirmation of the smart speaker, Samsung and Harman have yet to announce the timing of the product's release. But in a recent report, Bloomberg said sources "briefed on the plans" confirmed that the said product was slated to launch within the first half of 2018.
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The said Bixby speaker would add to the growing competition of smart speakers pioneered by Amazon through the introduction of its Echo products and its own AI platform named Alexa. About a year later, Google joined the race by introducing the Google Home and Google Assistant.
On the other hand, it was also mentioned in Bloomberg's report that Samsung has yet to finalize other aspects on the release of its smart speaker including its price. The South Korean electronics company is reportedly currently considering selling the hardware product somewhere close to $200, but this is still open to changes.
Meanwhile, Samsung still has a lot of work to do to perfect the Bixby-powered speaker. According to its unnamed sources, the company is currently improving the product's ability to search the web through voice-activated commands.
As for the Samsung speaker's design, Bloomberg's source shared that there was an existing prototype with dimensions that measure somewhere between the size of Amazon Echo and Apple's HomePod. The same prototype is reportedly in a matte black color.
The same source also said that while Samsung considered producing a touchscreen-clad smart speaker, the company's entry device was not likely to have the said feature but will light up once activated with voice-based commands.
Back in September, Harman CEO Dinesh Paliwal expressed confidence that their upcoming Bixby-powered device had what it takes to lead the smart speaker competition despite coming in late following Echo and Google Home.
