Samsung mobile division president DJ Koh confirmed months ago that the company was building its own Samsung smart speaker. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, today, reports the company intends to release the speaker for around $200 in early 2018.
Samsung Smart Speaker a Near Possibility
While Koh hadn’t made the confirmation earlier, Bloomberg reports the device will focus on audio quality and IoT management, thus running Bixby. Including Galaxy phones, all Samsung devices will work with the speaker. This also makes it a central control hub for Samsung’s SmartThings ecosystem. Bloomberg reports, however, that the Samsung smart speaker voice-based web searches still need a bit more of tweaking and improvements.
Reports claim Samsung’s plans on releasing the device possibly in the US, and in other multiple markets, as well.
Most of Samsung’s competitors already offer their own speaker alternatives. Even Apple’s delayed HomePod and Google’s Google Home lineup have recently received traction among users. The new Microsoft Harman Kardon Invoke and Amazon’s Alexa devices also beat Samsung to the game. Its strength, however, could lie in markets where Alexa remains currently unavailable.