Facebook Delays Smart Display Launch Until October
The Taiwanese publication DigiTimes is reporting that Facebook is further delaying its planned Smart Display Launch until October but still plans to bring the product to market in 2018.
“Facebook’s smart speakers reportedly will begin mass production in June as originally scheduled, but the order volumes for 2018 have been cut by around 20% from the original plan, while the product launch is estimated to be delayed to October, according to sources from the upstream supply chain. The order volumes for 2019 remain unchanged.”
Going Big with a Smart Display
Facebook’s smart display is expected to be called Portal and is designed to compete with the Amazon Echo Show, a smart speaker with a screen. There are two codenamed versions of the forthcoming Facebook device, Aloha and Fiona. The article reveals that the Aloha version is expected to have an adjustable display and carry a higher price point, but that both devices will have a 15-inch display, far larger than the Echo Show’s 7-inch screen.
Voicebot had earlier reported that Facebook would not launch its smart display products as originally planned at the company’s annual developer conference in San Jose next week. At the time of that report, the expectation was that Facebook may still bring the product to market as early as July. The further delay until October may be driven by Facebook’s need to address public privacy concerns and add those into the product. Those changes are likely to be software-based and would not affect the production schedule.
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