Bixby Gets Four New Languages, Makes It Onto the Galaxy S10, and Galaxy Home Smart Speaker will Start Shipping in April
- Bixby 2.0 based on Viv technology will replace the 1.0 legacy version on the new Galaxy S10 smartphones
- Bixby 2.0 is also gaining support for four new languages: British English, German, Italian, and Spanish
- The Galaxy Home smart speaker is expected to start shipping in April 2019
Samsung announced at its Galaxy S10 launch event that Bixby 2.0 which first debuted on the Galaxy Note 9, will be available on the Galaxy S10. This is significant because it was Bixby 1.0 on the company’s flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S8 and S9 in 2017 and 2018. Bixby 1.0 was developed on a different technology and has received mixed reviews and some negative feedback since early 2017. The more capable Bixby 2.0 is based on technology from Samsung’s Viv acquisition.
Bixby 2.0 has superior speech recognition and a broader set of capabilities, including session context maintenance and personalization. Session context maintenance enables Bixby to recall your immediate conversation and can streamline interactions by not requiring the user to repeat details. Personalization enables Bixby to prioritize results or suggest services based on user behavior and needs. Bixby 2.0 is also the platform that now supports the developer community and provides tools to build Capsules (i.e. voice apps). With the S10 launch, it looks like Bixby 2.0 will finally replace the legacy 1.0 version on nearly all Samsung device platforms.
Bixby Gets More Languages
Samsung also announced that Bixby 2.0 added support for British English, German, Italian, and Spanish. This offers Bixby much wider reach in Europe and complements the initial launch languages of U.S. English, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese. If you look at other large markets where Samsung has substantial smartphone market share, you might anticipate that French, Indian English, Hindi, and Japanese will be next. The original inclusion of Korean and Mandarin also sets Bixby apart from Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant which currently do not support the languages. Apple HomePod does support Mandarin and currently is sold in Chain and that is an important factor for Samsung competitively.
Galaxy Home Smart Speakers will Ship in April
DJ Koh, Samsung’s co-CEO, also told CNET after the Galaxy S10 launch event that the Galaxy Home smart speaker will begin shipping in April. First introduced at the Galaxy Note 9 launch event in August, the Galaxy Home is expected to be priced for the premium smart speaker category and compete directly with Apple’s HomePod. The egg-shaped device will have Bixby 2.0 for voice interaction and high-end acoustic qualities. The positioning of Galaxy Home along with new Galaxy Watches and the introduction yesterday of the Galaxy Buds wireless earbuds in the style of AirPods, provide clear examples of Samsung’s strategy to compete directly Apple in every product category.
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