Samsung’s Bixby-powered Smart Speaker Is Nowhere to Be Seen

In August 2018, Samsung announced a Bixby-powered smart home speaker: Galaxy Home. It was an interesting idea, with a very peculiar design, and the fact that it was powered by Samsung’s not-so-popular Bixby assistant.

At first, the company didn’t originally say when the product will be available, though it’d planned to showcase the speaker to developers in November 2018. The company then announced the device will be available on April 2019, and that obviously hasn’t happened.

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Samsung didn’t reveal the details behind why the speaker is getting delayed, and the company then said the product will launch in the first half of 2019. We are way past the first half of 2019, and as The Verge reports, there’s still no Galaxy Home to be found.

But wait, there’s the Galaxy Home Mini which Samsung is “beta-testing”, and yes — that’s also not available for purchase, yet.

Samsung previously said the company is continuing to “refine and enhance” the Galaxy Home, but after more than a year of the initial launch, there has to be a reason behind the company failing to deliver on its promises. And that reason is completely a mystery.

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Conversation 12 comments

  • LocalPCGuy

    04 October, 2019 - 7:52 am

    <p>Perhaps Samsung analyzed their data on how often Bixby has been used, compared to Google's Assistant and search bar, on their Android phones and discovered that not many people actively use Bixby. They might be reworking their new speaker to allow a non-Samsung assistant to operate on it, which I think most people would prefer. I personally have never used Bixby on my Samsung phone, and see no reason to start using it.</p>

  • wolters

    Premium Member
    04 October, 2019 - 8:56 am

    <p>I feel this is vaporware. I can't imagine what the delay is beyond Bixby being mostly ignored by most users. When they announced their partnership with Microsoft, for a brief moment, I was expecting some kind of hybrid Bixby / Cortana mix in the Galaxy Home but considering the state of Cortana, that is unlikely. </p><p><br></p><p>Bixby is on Samsung Phones, Watches, Tablets, TV's and even home appliances like washers and dryers and refrigerators. But I can't see why anyone would run out to get the Galaxy Home. </p>

  • Rob_Wade

    04 October, 2019 - 9:53 am

    <p>We already have a well-designed sound system in our home. Why would I need an additional speaker? We already have and Xbox One w/Kinect, smartphones, Surface tablets, big PC and a server, all with microphones. Why would we need another input device? Makes no sense.</p>

  • Pbike908

    04 October, 2019 - 10:14 am

    <p>The worst feature of my Galaxy S8 is Bixby and Samsung won't let me completely disable it. They say not using it doesn't interfere with anything or collect anything, however, it's so baked into the phone who knows for sure. </p>

  • MikeGalos

    04 October, 2019 - 1:03 pm

    <p>So, they didn't set a date and so they haven't missed that date and nothing about today make the product not shipping in any way news.</p><p>In other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.</p><p><br></p>

    • train_wreck

      05 October, 2019 - 4:23 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#476965">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>They set 2 dates. Did you read the article?</p>

  • MikeGalos

    04 October, 2019 - 1:06 pm

    <blockquote><em><a href="#476796">In reply to SvenJ:</a></em></blockquote><p>The problem, at this point, is that pretty much everybody who wants an Assistant based speaker has bought into either Alexa or, if they're devoted Apple users, Siri so there's not much market left that hasn't already bought into an ecosystem.</p>

    • MikeGalos

      04 October, 2019 - 2:18 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#476966">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>Oddly, this post is tagged as a reply to SvenJ's reply to RobWade's post but shows up as a top level post rather than in the hierarchy. </p><p><br></p><p>BUGBUG to the thurrott.com dev team.</p>

      • MikeGalos

        04 October, 2019 - 7:09 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#476995">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>Amazing. Somebody voted down a bug report. 🙂 </p>

  • rm

    04 October, 2019 - 1:11 pm

    <p>Bixby is too much of a niche product; only available on Samsung electronics. It is dead, I hate it on my Galaxy S8+ with a dedicated, guaranteed to annoy you, hardware button.</p>

  • mmcpher

    Premium Member
    04 October, 2019 - 1:33 pm

    <p>Assumes a fact not in evidence — that someone is actually looking for it! I don't mind the name "Bixby" for a digital assistant as it has a vaguely Wodehousian-butler sound to it. I mind every other thing about Bixby, particularly all his eager land unhelpful lurking. Bad enough he's in my phone. I'm not letting that proper pest out and putting him on the kitchen counter! I admire Samsung's ability to innovate in the design of new products. I get queasy when they try to extend their reach. Bad enough I have to fend off the intrusive Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa, even the nearly-muted Cortana. What the world needs now, is another folksinger, like I need a whole in my head. Or another digital assistant breaking out to the run of the house.</p>

  • chaad_losan

    07 October, 2019 - 6:09 pm

    <p>A Solution looking for a Problem(tm).</p>

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