The Samsung alternative to the Amazon Echo and Google Home is unlikely to see the light of day: a source claims that the company doesn’t believe an AI speaker would be marketable, despite the fact that such a product, codenamed Vega, has been in development at Samsung for over a year. The primary reason appears to be the success of Amazon’s speaker, which currently dominates the AI speaker market with more than 70 percent share.



“More importantly, Samsung cannot afford to focus on the uncertain market, as most of its AI specialists — whose number is much less than that of the US tech giants — are currently going all out to develop the Bixby version in English,” the source said. The launch of Samsung’s much-touted voice assistant Bixby in English continues to be delayed due to some technical and data issues. Although the Korean tech giant may not launch its own AI speaker anytime soon, it is preparing for AI speakers by testing out the technology for some of its appliances, such as smart refrigerators, in case the market begins to take off, the source said.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – Samsung May Cancel Bixby Speaker for Being “Unmarketable”