With Bixby Voice for English Slow to Roll Out, Rumors Swirl About Samsung Speaker

Samsung didn’t respond to questions Wednesday seeking details about a reported upcoming voice-enabled smart speaker, the subject of numerous accounts this week speculating that the CE manufacturer is looking to toss its contestant into a ring already populated by several Amazon Alexa-based devices, Google Home, the upcoming Apple HomePod and an upcoming speaker from Samsung brand Harman Kardon that will pack Microsoft Cortana voice control. The Samsung-branded speaker is expected to include Samsung’s Bixby voice engine, but Bixby Voice has yet to launch in the U.S. A report in the Korea Herald Tuesday said the English version of Bixby Voice, originally expected to launch with the Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone in spring, encountered difficulties with managing big data, an essential part of deep learning technology. An early release beta version of Bixby Voice for English users showed “just how much work is left for the company to provide a polished user experience,” said a ZDNet report.