Samsung’s Bixby-enabled Galaxy Home smart speaker is AWOL

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It’s Friday, it’s May 10, and it’s starting to look a lot like summer is on the way. What doesn’t appear to be on the way is Samsung’s Bixby-powered Galaxy Home smart speaker. It was supposed to ship last month, with Samsung not being forthcoming with a new release date.

The Galaxy Home was originally announced almost a year ago, during the same Unpacked event that the Note 9 was announced at. Its Samsung’s end-run at other smart speakers containing Google Assistant, Alexa, or Siri and its powered by the company’s own Bixby AI assistant. It looks pretty good, with a stylish silhouette and some polished metal legs. With the rest of the competition lacking style, the Galaxy Home might have the edge – if it ever arrives.

When the Galaxy Fold was announced in February, Samsung said that the Galaxy Home speaker would be coming in April

There’s a pattern of missed shipping dates building up for Samsung now, with the now-infamous Galaxy Fold in an undetermined holding pattern while Samsung figures out how to put a band-aid on the issues with the foldable device. Does this now-missed shipping date also point to issues with the Galaxy Home device?

The Verge managed to get ahold of Samsung’s PR team, who said that the company is “planning to launch Galaxy Home in the first half of 2019” and did not give any further details.

Then again, maybe Samsung did some polling and discovered that nobody cares about having Bixby in their home. I mean, when the majority of top search results to do with Bixby are how to disable the assistant, maybe putting a smart speaker into production wasn’t a smart move.

Screenshot: KnowTechie

What is going on at Samsung lately? Ever since the explodegate issue with the Note 7, the company that loves to “one-up” the competition has blundered into issue after issue.

Are they pushing too hard to stay ahead of the competition, with companies like Huawei and Oppo nipping at its heels? Whatever it is, the company needs to fix it and fast.

What do you think? Interested in a smart speaker from Samsung? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.