Competition appears to be heating up in the voice-based intelligent speaker market, with Samsung the latest company said to be planning its own version.
A WSJ report seemingly confirms earlier rumors.
The timing is far from determined, the people said. The English-language version of Bixby has been delayed and they said many of the speaker’s features and other specifications are yet to be decided. But the project—internally code-named “Vega”—has been going on for more than a year, several of the people said.
Samsung may face an uphill battle, however. It is said to have already shelved earlier plans for a different speaker, due to voice recognition problems.
The same issue is rumored to be delaying the rollout of the English language version of Bixby to the company’s Galaxy S8 smartphone. Even once this problem is solved, it’s unclear how effectively Samsung’s speaker could compete against existing products. We recently went hands-on with Samsung’s beta of Bixby over at 9to5Google.