A Samsung exec said that the company is working on an Amazon Echo competitor (SSNLF)

Samsung Bixby

DJ Koh, the president of Samsung's mobile division, told CNBC that the company is working on a smart speaker, and said that the company may announce it "soon."

We had heard rumours that the device was under development, but further reports seemed to suggest that Samsung may have shot down the idea internally. However, the executive's comments suggest that the speaker is still on the way.

The device would compete with the likes of Amazon's Echo, the Google Home speaker, an Apple's recently announced HomePod in the digital war for the house.

Each of these products has its manufacturer's respective artificial intelligence- (AI) powered assistant on board — Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri, respectively — but it's still unclear whether Samsung will feature its own, Bixby, in the upcoming product.

This wouldn't technically be Samsung's first venture into the category. The company recently acquired Harman, whose audio-focused subsidiary Harman Kardon released its Invoke smart speaker earlier this summer.

Invoke, however, features Microsoft's Cortana as its powering AI assistant.

This could be due to the fact that Bixby wasn't ready for prime time when the Invoke was announced, but now that an out-of-beta version is making its way to just announced Galaxy Note 8, there may be a chance to see it in the forthcoming Samsung-branded speaker as well.

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