Samsung exec confirms smart speaker coming soon

Likely Buyers of Echo

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Samsung is working on a smart speaker to compete with devices including the Amazon Echo and Google Home, the president of its mobile division said in an interview with CNBC.

The device will almost certainly be powered by Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant, now widely available in English and Korean, and will allow users to control smart home devices, get information, and more.

Samsung’s entrance into the increasingly crowded smart speaker space presents both challenges and opportunities:

Bixby doesn’t appear to be as capable as competitors. For now Bixby is only available on Samsung’s flagship phones, the Galaxy S8 and S8+, but early impressions of the English variant have been that it’s at times unreliable and doesn’t always properly interpret questions or commands. It also doesn’t rely on conversational context to provide more natural answers or allow extended engagement.
But Samsung makes many home appliances like air conditioners and refrigerators that could potentially be integrated into a smart home ecosystem. The company will also let Bixby be integrated into other companies’ appliances and smart home products — much as Amazon does with Alexa.
And Samsung has access to markets that its main competitors in the smart speaker space don't. Bixby speaks both English and Korean, while Amazon, Google, and Apple have all focused their smart speakers on Western markets. Samsung can offer devices in Korea, where it will face limited competition and could establish a leading position — its competitors haven't announced any plans to offer their smart speakers there.

The smart speaker market is evolving rapidly. These devices need to both inspire excitement and offer features that consumers see as useful. That’s why BI Intelligence expects Amazon’s new Echo Show to find more success in the market than the Echo Look or Apple’s HomePod. It’s doubtful that Samsung’s Bixby-powered speaker will make a major dent in US and European markets given the features of its rivals.

Smart speakers — Amazon's Echo, for example — are the latest device category poised to take a chunk of our increasingly digital lives. These devices are made primarily for the home and execute a user's voice commands via an integrated digital assistant. These digital assistants can play music, answer questions, and control other devices within a user's home, among other things.

The central question for this new product category is not when they will take off, but which devices will rise to the top. To answer this question, BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, surveyed our leading-edge consumer panel, gathering exclusive data on Amazon's recently released Echo Show and Echo Look, as well as Apple's HomePod.

Peter Newman, research analyst for BI Intelligence, has put together a Smart Speaker report that analyzes the market potential of the Echo Look, Echo Show, and HomePod. Using exclusive survey data, this report evaluates each device's potential for adoption based on four criteria: awareness, excitement, usefulness, and purchase intent. Finally, the report draws some inferences from our data about the direction the smart speaker market could take from here.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

Amazon's new Echo Show is the big winner — it has mass-market appeal and looks like it will take off. The combination of usefulness and excitement will drive consumers to buy the Echo Show. The Echo Look, though, seems like it will struggle to attract that same level of interest.
Apple’s HomePod looks likely to find a place in the smart speaker market but won’t dominate its space like the iPhone or iPad did.
The smart speaker market will evolve rapidly in the next few years, with more devices featuring screens, a variety of more focused products emerging, and eventually, the voice assistant moving beyond the smart speaker.

In full, the report:

Showcases exclusive survey data on initial consumer reactions to the Echo Look, Echo Show, and HomePod.
Highlights the aims and strategies of major players in the smart speaker market.
Provides analysis on the direction this nascent market will take and the opportunity for companies considering a move into the space.

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You can also purchase and download the full report from our research store.

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