Samsung’s rumored smart speaker just got a lot more official thanks to a CNBC report which quotes its mobile chief DJ Koh. He told the outlet that it’s currently working on the device and will announce the product soon.
Koh also stated that Samsung wants to provide a fruitful user experience at home with Samsung devices. While he didn’t mention Bixby, it seems obvious that the AI assistant will be at the heart of the company’s smart speaker plans, just like Siri, Alexa, and the Google Assistant are for the HomePod, Echo, and Google Home, respectively.
Bixby recently went international across 200 countries, but still communicates only in Korean and English. A previous report had alleged that Samsung’s codename for the project was Vega and it was being held back by the slow progress of Bixby. That may not be the case anymore.
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Koh also told CNBC that Samsung was going to announce the sequel to the Gear S3 at the IFA 2017 next week. Interestingly, he admitted that the wearable market hasn’t grown as much as expected since devices aren’t providing enough useful features to customers.
He believes that if Samsung can release a smartwatch which can monitor everything health-related and provide the associated information the market would grow. Coincidentally, the Gear Fit 2 Pro recently got leaked via the brand’s own website, revealing key images and specs.
The Gear Fit2 Pro may come with specs like a 1.5-inch 216 x 432p Super AMOLED display, Tizen OS, a 200mAh battery, 4GB of ROM, 500MB of RAM, GPS support, and waterproof abilities up to 50m deep. Price details aren’t out yet, but it may cost around $199.99 (roughly Rs 12800).