Samsung’s DJ Koh says Galaxy Home smart speaker launching in April

Image: Raymond wong / mashable

Do you remember Samsung’s Bixby-powered Galaxy Home smart speaker that was created to compete directly with the Amazon Echo? 

The smart speaker was announced in August last year, but the company gave no official release date during the announcement. Now, we finally have one — well, sort  of.

At Samsung’s Unpacked event today — where the company announced four new Galaxy S10 phones (S10e, S10, S10+, and S10 5G) and a foldable phone — the head of Samsung’s mobile division DJ Koh told CNET the Galaxy Home will launch in April.

Koh didn’t share a specific release date or even say how much the smart speaker would cost. But he did promise that it’s coming later this year.

At this point, you have to wonder who is left to care about the Galaxy Home. In the time it has taken Samsung to actually release the smart speaker, Google Assistant- and Alexa-powered smart speakers have invaded homes worldwide.

Although the company doesn’t disclose exact unit sales, Amazon says it has sold “tens of millions” Echo devices and over 100 million  Alexa-enabled devices.

Similarly, Google might have sold an estimated 52 million Google Homes to date. Google also boasted how its Assistant is used on over 1 billion devices.

Can Samsung even catch up to Google and Alexa, who are already so far ahead of the smart speaker and smart home game? It seems unlikely, especially considering how universally loathed Bixby is. 

Even Apple is struggling to get people to buy HomePods, but that might have more to do with its more expensive price, lack of integration with music services other than Apple Music, and weak Siri intelligence.

The last time we checked out Galaxy Home, it didn’t exactly blow us away with its design or its features. So again, is anyone really on the fence about Samsung’s smart speaker?