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57 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
57 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Samsung Could Take Over The Digital Assistant Market
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date: 2017-08-06
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---
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#### Bixby on phones is just the beginning.
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The world was shaken when Samsung decided to roll out
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their own digital assistant on their flagship Galaxy S8 phones. As in,
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it was shaken by the collective groan that the tech community let loose
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upon learning that it would even have it's own, dedicated button. But
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there's something else I believe it lurking beneath the surface.
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Samsung is an enormous company, making everything from phones to vacuum
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cleaners to dishwashers. Notable missing, however, is any indication of
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a competitor to Amazon Echo, Google Home or Apple's newly announced
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HomePod. Granted -- Bixby is fairly new, and is still learning. However
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given the wide range of products Samsung offers, the conclusion that is
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easy to draw is that they are planning on putting Bixby into their own
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home appliances, for a *truly* "smart" home.
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Bixby itself is a fairly standard first generation virtual assistant. It
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can answer questions and control phone functions fairly well (including
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installing apps and changing system settings), but when put head to head
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with Google Assistant or Siri it falls a bit flat (you can check out
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MKBHDs comparison video [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkpAro4zIwU)). The interface is very Samsung, not unattractive but
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not my personal taste. I especially like the Google Now-like interface
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(which it actually replaces on the S8), and believe it looks better if
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not as good as Google Now itself (Pixel XL owner here). However the
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interaction with the assistant itself definitely needs some work before
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I would consider it on par with it's competitors.
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Already, many of their appliances are going "smart". They tout their
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smart fridges as being "Family Hubs" (trademarked, obviously), and run
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the Tizen operating system, an IoT operating system by the Linux
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Foundation. This means that they're already building off an open source
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project (which they already have a lot of experience with, launching
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phones running Tizen OS in India), and gives them a very, very good
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opportunity to implement Bixby. In everything. Smart ovens -- exist.
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Smart dishwashers -- why not. Would you like a smart vacuum cleaner?
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Consider it done. And they could all be running Bixby when Samsung
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decides it's smart enough.
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Now -- the argument that Google, Amazon or Apple could take over your
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home with their products is there, however the problem with that is that
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they do not make every day appliances. Google has made some moves with
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Nest, and all three have assistant pods/bluetooth speakers, but it would
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take years for them to catch up to Samsung in terms of brand recognition
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in the appliances market. Not everyone needs a Google Home, but most
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people need a fridge, and that might happen to come with Tizen and
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Bixby. The average person may not have an Amazon Echo, but they'll
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probably have an oven, dishwasher, laundry machine... Perhaps not all,
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but at least one. And Samsung is well established.
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So look forward to finally having a completely mic'd up home, courtesy
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of Samsung, listening, learning, adapting and assisting you every day.
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Whether or not it explodes (in popularity) we will see. |