Samsung’s Bixby launch didn’t appear to be particularly planned out. There was a huge, huge amount of hype regarding the assistant and Samsung did its best to fuel them, even going to the point of adding a dedicated button to its flagship Galaxy S8. However, when the time came to deliver, the company was found to be lacking.
Not that there was any doubt in the AI’s capabilities, but because it simply was not there. Needless to say, people who had been anticipating this and that were fairly disappointed. Well, Samsung is finally bringing the AI to the US, although it is still in a preview mode and we have no inkling as to when the full version of Bixby will roll out to the masses.
The company refrained from launching Bixby in all its glory because of the fact that it wasn’t very god with recognizing the English language and it was still far, far from the point where it could do everything that Samsung promised it would eventually be able to perform.
So why this launch? Well, Samsung is still working on the features and a beta launch would be a good way for the company to test some stuff out and correct the chinks. However, a Beta launch also means that Samsung is still unsure of its device’s capabilities. This way, the assistant will be shipped out to a selected few instead of everyone and Samsung will probably rely heavily on their feedback as it attempt to capitalize upon Bixby’s promise of giving Siri and Cortana a run for their money.
And it’s not just Cortana and Siri. Samsung is aiming more at the Google Assistant, or even at Alexa, with its virtual assistant. The company has already started integrating it within its refrigerators. And that could also explain why it is taking the cautious path rather than hurrying out with a half-baked produt.
