After Apple and Google made strong waves in the niche personal assistant market for mobile devices, it was only a matter of time before Samsung decided to join the fray. Yesterday they did just that, acquiring the company Viv Labs, a start-up that was founded by key players behind the original Apple Siri team back in 2010. In a post on Medium by Dag Kittlaus, he said:
Samsung is setting its sights on becoming a major player in software and services, and specifically AI. Samsung Pay has already proven to be one of the most successful mobile payment platforms in the market and SmartThings is another software acquisition signaling their conviction. And they have installed a new cadre of senior SW-savvy management stretching all the way to the top with a mission. You will soon come to see the utter seriousness of Samsung’s intentions. And like us, they aim to win.
It has been wildly reported that Viv’s assistant is similar to Amazon’s Alexa; since it integrates third-party programs to help complete tasks set out by the user, even if the programs are not directly associated with the assistant. If Samsung does infact build Viv into its core systems, it could prove to be a very strong competitor in the future to Apple’s and Google’s offerings
