About two months ago, a speculative report surfaced indicating that Samsung was busy working on a Bixby-powered smart speaker designed to compete with the likes of Amazon’s Echo and Google Home. Hardly a surprise, the smart speaker market has become a much more alluring space for tech companies in recent years, largely due to the success Amazon has enjoyed with the Echo over the past years. Indeed, Apple is also getting into the mix with its forthcoming Siri-based HomePod speaker which, if all goes according to plan, will hit store shelves later this year.
As for Samsung’s own plans, Samsung executive DJ Koh confirmed that a smart speaker product is on the way. During an interview with CNBC earlier today, Koh said that Samsung is taking the initiative seriously.
“Maybe soon we will announce it,” Koh said. “I am already working on it. As I mentioned I wanted to provide a fruitful user experience at home with Samsung devices, and I want to be moving quite heavily on it.”
Similar to Apple’s own plans with Siri, Samsung is reportedly interesting in having Bixby stand at the forefront of the Samsung user experience, no matter if users happen to be on a mobile device or relaxing on the couch while watching TV. Interestingly enough, rumor has it that Samsung has been working on a smart speaker, in some form or another, since 2015. Notably, though, development on the project hit a standstill after speaker prototypes exhibited trouble with voice recognition performance.
All in all, it will be interesting to see how the smart speaker landscape takes shape over the next few months. Amazon certainly has a head start relative to everyone else, but the field is about to get incredibly competitive over the next few months.
