Samsung Teases April Debut Of Galaxy Home Smart Speaker

After announcing its Galaxy Home smart speaker in 2018, Samsung Mobile CEO DJ Koh has reportedly indicated that the device would be rolled out by April. The product is seen as a rival to the HomePod, according to reports.

The Galaxy Home speaker is said to be the first smart speaker that works with the Bixby smart assistant, according to VentureBeat. The outlet reported that the speaker maintains sound quality through “spatial intelligence” and that it is mounted on a tripod. In addition, the speaker reportedly has music recommendations that are enabled by Spotify.

As it stands, Samsung has other products that tap into the technology of its Bixby voice assistant. But, according to reports, the speaker — along with a possible less expensive model — “are a core part of Samsung’s push to make Bixby a key player in the smart home race.”

The news comes as a new report indicated that smart speaker sales are on the uptick and Amazon notched the top spot in shipments. During the fourth quarter of last year, Strategy Analytics reported that smart speaker shipments spiked by 95 percent to 38.5 million units from 22.6 million units in the third quarter. And, for all of last year, 86.2 million units were sold.

Google, as well as Amazon, had a strong fourth quarter because of their affordable speakers. And, while sales of Apple’s HomePod increased by 45 percent, its market share dropped 4.1 percent in the fourth quarter. The firm also estimated that roughly 60 million households globally have at least one smart speaker.

Strategy Analytics vice president David Mercer said in press release, “The major technology vendors have done a great job at establishing the voice assistant market, and our research shows that users are highly satisfied with the way smart speakers are improving their daily lives. Now comes the question of how to monetize the user base, and it will be interesting to see how each player addresses this challenge.”