Samsung has had a troubled history when it comes to producing smart speakers with its Bixby voice assistant. The company has yet to widely release a Bixby-powered speaker after two (public) attempts, but the third time might be the charm — new reports indicate Samsung is working on yet another smart speaker.
Max Jambor, a notable tech leaker, said on Wednesday that a new Samsung smart speaker is in development. It will allegedly be called the Galaxy Home Mini 2, with a model number of SM-V320. TechInsider, who also has a proven track record with leaks, claims the speaker will be released on February 8 with an initial production run of only “a few thousand units.”
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Galaxy Home Mini 2 (SM-V320) isn’t too far away anymore, I can tell you that😉 pic.twitter.com/xtV6z4645Y
— Max Jambor (@MaxJmb) January 12, 2022
Samsung’s first shot at a smart speaker was the Galaxy Home, which was announced in August 2018, alongside the Galaxy Note 9 and original Galaxy Watch. It was never released, but in late 2019 and early 2020, Samsung started showing off a smaller Galaxy Home Mini. That speaker never had a worldwide release either.
It’s not clear if the Galaxy Home 2 will use the same Bixby voice assistant, or if Samsung will opt to use Alexa or Google Assistant instead. There have never been any (widely released) smart speakers with the Bixby voice assistant, and even though using Bixby would set it apart from competitors, the speaker likely wouldn’t be as useful as an Amazon Echo or Google Nest Mini.
Even though Samsung itself has yet to fully release a smart speaker, Samsung’s subsidiaries have sold plenty of smart speakers with other digital assistants. Samsung owns Harman International, which sells audio products under many brands, such as JBL and AKG. The JBL Link View 8 smart speaker with Google Assistant was available for a while, as were the audio-only JBL Link Music and JBL Link Portable.