Samsung could be betting heavily on its as-yet-unseen AI
assistant to sell the next generation of Galaxy
smartphones.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the company
is considering adding a dedicated button for the service to next
year’s Galaxy S8. "The latest internal prototypes of the premium
Galaxy S8 handset include a button on the side edge of the
smartphone that would be used to launch a beefed-up virtual
assistant," says the WSJ, adding that its sources cautioned that
"prototypes aren’t final and could change."
This follows a report from Reuters that the company’s AI
assistant will be incorporated not only into Galaxy smartphones,
but also the company's home appliances and wearables. Earlier this
year, Samsung acquired Viv Labs, a startup founded by the original
creators of Apple’s Siri, and it's assumed the new assistant will
be based on their technology. The Korean tech giant hasn’t detailed
what type of features its new assistant will offer, but says it
will be "significantly differentiated" from competitors, and will
work with a range of third-party services.
"Developers can attach and upload services to our agent,"
Samsung executive vice president Rhee Injong said at a briefing.
"Even if Samsung doesn't do anything on its own, the more services
that get attached the smarter this agent will get, learn more new
services, and provide them to end-users with ease."
According to The Wall Street Journal, though, Samsung fans might
have to wait longer than usual to see the company’s next flagship
device. For the past three years, Samsung has unveiled its latest
handsets at the Mobile World Congress trade show in February, but
the WSJ says that in 2017, this unveiling could come as late as
April. The company will undoubtedly want to assure nothing is left
to chance following the Note 7 battery debacle, which was
reportedly caused by a scramble to beat this year's 'dull' iPhone.
With the Galaxy S8, Samsung will definitely want to be safe rather
than sorry.