Like Apple, Samsung has been working on a smart speaker that will compete with the Amazon Echo and the Google Home, and the South Korean company is aiming to release it in the first half of 2018, reports
Bloomberg.
Samsung's smart speaker sounds similar to the HomePod, with a "strong focus" on audio quality. Apple aimed to make the HomePod stand out with sound quality that beats out competitors like the Amazon Echo.
One prototype in testing is said to be "between the size" of the newest Echo and the HomePod. It could come in different colors, including a matte black shade, and it has no screen but offers a light-up area on the top for visual feedback like the HomePod.
Similar to other products, the Samsung smart speaker will be able to control smart home accessories, and it will be controlled via voice assistant. It will feature built-in Bixby support, Samsung's voice-based AI solution.
Samsung confirmed its work on a smart speaker to compete with the HomePod back
in August of 2017. At the time, Samsung mobile president DJ Koh said the aim was to provide a "fruitful user experience at home with Samsung devices."
Samsung is considering a price of around $200 for the smart speaker, which would make it more affordable than Apple's $349 HomePod. If Samsung is indeed aiming for an early 2018 release, the smart speaker could come out around the same time as the HomePod.
Apple originally planned to introduce the HomePod in December, but has since delayed its release until 2018.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)I kind of wish that Mac Rumors would just pretend Samsung just doesn't exist, it's just free advertising to a scummy company.
Are you never going to buy an iPhone again because they source parts from that "scummy company"?Maybe they'll beat Apple to market. o_O
Yep. We all know what happened last time they beat Apple to the market. :D
Are you never going to buy an iPhone again because they source parts from that "scummy company"?
I actually have a lot of respect for the the semiconductor division of Samsung.For GPUs Samsung VRAM is very sought after since it overclocks significantly better than competitors.
Their SSD are pretty damn nice.
I just don't respect the people that put this stuff into actual product. It's usually extremely gimmicky... For a while they were basically cloning anything Apple made without an ounce of their own creativity. Apple does marketing but Samsung marketing is almost ingrained with deceit. You don't have to see that, I don't care, it's just observations I've made over time. I think Samsung mobile got better hardware wise, they finally just went off in their own direction but their software skins are still gimmicky. They overall improved but still lost a lot of respect for them.
No I won't stop buying Apple products that contain Samsung semiconductors. I've got no gripes with that division, it actually takes a lot of talent, creativity and thought to produce that type of stuff. Can't say the same about the consumer products that Samsung produces. Exploding washers, exploding phones, cheap plastic gimmicks...
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