While Samsung has been pretty quiet on the Galaxy Home ever since it was unveiled more than a year ago, we’ve seen plenty of indications recently that the elusive Bixby-powered smart speaker may finally be on its way to retail shelves. We had been hoping that Samsung would announce release dates for the Galaxy Home at the ongoing developer conference in San Jose, California, but while the company didn’t do that, it did decide to show off the Galaxy Home Mini for the first time.
And when we pressed Samsung on information on the Galaxy Home and Galaxy Home Mini’s retail launch, here’s what we were told:
“The smart speaker plays an integral role in Samsung’s vision to make lives simpler and more convenient through the Internet of Things (IoT). Through a beta test program for Galaxy Home and Galaxy Home Mini, we have listened to valuable feedback from consumers and are now in the process of evaluating the results of the beta test. We will look forward to sharing more details on the product availability soon.”
Unfortunately, the company’s official statement doesn’t put us any closer to finding out a timeframe for when we will be able to purchase either of the two smart speakers. Given how Bixby is still in its infancy compared to established voice assistants like Google Assistant or Amazon’s Alexa, we’re guessing Samsung doesn’t want to say anything concrete about the Galaxy Home’s availability unless it knows the speaker and Bixby are ready to take on its competitors.
