Bixby-powered smart speaker is definitely coming soon

The ‘will they, won’t they’ Samsung smart speaker conundrum has finally been given a definitive answer. And they will! After months of contradictory reports, Samsung has finally revealed that a Bixby-powered smart speaker will be launching soon.

Following the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8, the company’s mobile chief DJ Koh revealed the news. “Maybe soon we will announce it,” he 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.”

After months of delay, Samsung finally began rolling out its Bixby smart assistant to users in July. Samsung’s rival to smart assistants such as Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, is now available in around 200 countries.

 “Almost anything you could do with touch or typing, you can now do with your voice,” Samsung said of the new capabilities for Bixby, adding that third-party support will come next.

The news rubbishes the Korean Herald’s report that the project had been shelved for good by Samsung. When it launches, Samsung’s speaker will face competition from Amazon’s Alexa-powered Echo lineup, Google Home, Microsoft’s Cortana-based Invoke, and Apple’s HomePod (which arrives this December).

How quickly Samsung’s smart speaker is released remains to be seen. As does any spec surrounding the project which currently codenamed as Vega. Its success may or may not depend on how well Bixby does in the coming months as well as how many people buy into Apple’s HomePod when it launches later this year. Amazon is also lining up a new speaker which comes with a screen as an upgrade to its Alexa-powered Echo.