Samsung patent sparks smart speaker rumors

Continuing what has already been a newsworthy week for the world of smart speakers, rumors are beginning to circulate that Samsung plans to get in the game with its own news-reading, weather-watching, talking tabletop device.

It seems a logical progression for the smart device giant, after it launched its own voice assistant platform, Bixby, with the Galaxy S8 line of smartphones. That would presumably be the same platform that Samsung would use in a proprietary smart speaker.

The South Korean company has not officially confirmed it is working on a smart speaker, but it has filed a patent for such a device, and the Korean Herald today reported that it is expected to launch this year.

This comes as nearly all other major players in the space are also in the headlines this week, and not always for the best reasons.

Google's Home smart speaker became completely nonfunctional earlier this week, though those issues appear to have been fixed.

And of course, the biggest news in this space came from Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, where it unveiled its long-awaited Siri-powered speaker, the $350 HomePod.

With that price tag, Apple is taking the peculiar step of going primarily after the Bose/Harman Kardon crowds -- the HomePod is a powerful music speaker crafted as a piece of designer chic, with the Siri functionality almost an after-thought.

That does make Apple's speaker, which is entering this market after it is already becoming saturated, distinct and differentiated. That begs the question of what Samsung might do to make its speaker stand out. Bixby is the newest voice assistant platform; in fact, it is still struggling to become fully functional. So it may be a hard sell to buy a Bixby speaker when Alexa and Google Assistant (the mentioned snafu notwithstanding) seem to do their job pretty well.

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