After the big controversy surrounding the Galaxy Note 7 battery, the Korean smartphone maker is keener than ever to get its flagship S8 out. While the updatess on the new phone have been sketchy thus far, in a recent statement, Samsung revealed some details about the new phone. The most important feature, as spelled out by the Korean electronics giant is the new artificial intelligence assistant service in the upcoming flagship smartphone
Apparently, the S8 will let the users use voice commands to carry out tasks such as ordering food or hailing a taxi without having to go through third party apps. The company hasn’t provided any specific details about the functioning of the new smart assistant at this point though.
Concept images used only for representation
This smart assistance, after making its debut on the S8 will later be made available on other smartphones, and would then make its way to company’s consumer durables such as refrigerators and washing machines.
To create an AI assistant, Samsung acquired Viv Labs Inc., a Silicon Valley startup who sold Siri to Apple. The new assistant, in all probability, will replace Samsung’s current voice assistant service called “S Voice” which has not been very popular. With the acquisition, Google is planning to break away from dependency on Google, which provides its branded virtual assistant for Android devices.
The new digital assistant will be an open AI platform, allowing third party developers to integrate their services with the AI platform.
“Our Galaxy smartphones don’t provide services that enable consumers to order pizza or coffee, but does provide third party applications. But the new AI platform will enable consumers to do things that they would usually do through a separate third party application,” Samsung’s statement said.
The new Samsung Galaxy S8 is expected to be launched in March-April 2017. The new phone is expected to feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 830 SoC which would drastically reduce battery consumption and open new avenues in smartphone performance. Expect street beating design, camera, performance and features from the new phone. Iris scan, dust/water proof design, best ever camera with optical zoon and new benchmark in screen resolution is almost a given.
Watch this space for more details on upcoming Samsung flagship. In the meantime, check out the fantastic Galaxy S8 Concept, imagined by Behance in the gallery below (click on thumbnails to expand)
