After announcing it last summer, Samsung is nearing the release of its Bixby Home smart speaker. The device, meant to compete with the Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple HomePod, and Sonos speakers, will launch by April. That’s according to co-CEO DJ Koh, who spoke to CNET today.
The Galaxy Home uses Samsung’s own Bixby virtual assistant to respond to a user’s voice commands. Its sound performance is tuned by the company’s AKG division. Samsung first revealed the Galaxy Home during its Note 9 event back in August, but has stayed relatively quiet on launch details ever since. The Home can act as a hub for SmartThings and control any smart home gadgets compatible with that platform by voice.
The company also claims this is “the only AI speaker that intuitively moves a wave of sound directly toward you when you ask it to. So no matter where you are in the room, you’ll find yourself immersed in sound.”
Bixby will need to perform well for the Galaxy Home to make sense as a purchase; it’s competing in the same premium space as HomePod and Sonos gear, while the Echo and Google Home can be had for significantly less money. But Samsung has now spent years and a lot of resources into trying to smarten up its assistant and extend its capabilities.
In a statement to The Verge, a spokesperson would only say: “Samsung is planning to launch Galaxy Home in the first half of 2019.”
Update, February 22nd at 5:35 PM ET: Added Samsung statement.
Comments
Should’ve been introduced by Prof. Snape in his Potion Lecture.
By Deutschestan on 02.20.19 5:20pm
I see your point. It looks like a cauldron.
By Sam.Smythe on 02.20.19 9:35pm
They know Bixby sucks ass, why make a product centred around it?
By Raamiz on 02.21.19 3:46am
I mean, it didn’t stop Apple.
By krzyfrog on 02.21.19 8:36am
This product is almost entirely geared towards korea.
Samsung is a Korean company, and originally built Bixby to understand Korean before adding support for any other language. Integration of Korean in most assistants has been mediocre at best and lackluster at worst, so therefore Samsung was able to dominate Korea with their virtual assistant before everybody else.
The most logical thing to do then is to launch a google home knockoff to capitalize on your already strong market before competition arrives, and thats exactly what samsung did.
By Pygasm on 02.21.19 10:42am
Disliking Bixby as a product is one thing but some people are drooling at this becoming a failure. There should be room for all kinds of assistants. But I am that guy who wanted Cortana to succeed. I hope this is successful cause I don’t wanna only choose between Alexa and Google.
By 10past12 on 02.21.19 4:26pm
100 percent agree with you. The more the better.
By dbsyo on 02.22.19 3:26pm