It looks like Samsung is joining the Apple, Amazon and Google clan to make its own smart speaker. According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, Samsung is working on smart speaker that will be powered by voice-activated voice assistant Bixby. Bixby is Samsung’s AI assistant — its answer to Alexa, or Siri, or the Google Assistant.
The smart speaker which is currently in early stage of development is code-named as Vega. The report goes on saying that the development of the speaker has been slowed down due to Bixby rollout. Last month, Samsung offered a select Galaxy S8 and S8+ owners in the US to an early access to Bixby’s voice features. The full rollout of Bixby to Galaxy S8 and S8+ owners is “unlikely before the second half of July”, added the report. This means the Vega smart speaker is not coming anytime in near future.
Just yesterday, it was reported that Alibaba is working on a smart speaker aimed at Chinese market. Currently smart speakers like Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple’s HomePod are already present in the US markets. It will be interesting to see what plans Samsung will have for its Vega smart speaker that will set it aside from the aforementioned lot.