As Samsung looks to bolster the software and services it offers across its devices, it has acquired Viv, an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant company founded by the makers of Siri, the South Korean electronics giant said on Thursday.
Viv would "work closely" with Samsung's mobile team but operate independently even as the acquisition was made for an undisclosed fee.
As the company looks for new areas of growth from payments to Artificial Intelligence (AT), this is Samsung's fifth acquisition in just over a year and a half.
Siri creators Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham were the founders of Viv. In recent times, Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft which are investing heavily in AI and personal assistant technology and Samsung's acquisition of Viv pits it against such other major technology companies.
Assistant, Google’s AI-powered system that works through its Home hub or smartphones, was launched publicly and unveiled on Tuesday. Amazon’s Echo speaker, which is powered by the AI assistant called Alexa, was recently launched in the U.K.
Areas where Samsung can create revenue streams from services is the present lookout of the South Korean company as it looks at a world that is beyond just hardware sales. For example, Samsung Pay, its contactless payment service, was launched by the company last year.
In addition to bringing the plethora of devices in its ecosystem from smartwatches to home appliances, Samsung will also be able to bring a digital personal assistant to its phones with the addition of Viv. Through the company SmartThings which it bought in 2014 for $200 million, Samsung also has its own smart home hub.
"Samsung has an ecosystem of devices many of which really benefit from voice control and intelligent agents," Ian Fogg, head of mobile at IHS Markit, told CNBC by phone.
"What it indicates is that Samsung's appetite to be a major player not just in hardware, not just in operating systems on watches or TV, but a layer that has services behind the hardware. These investments will make it increasingly hard for smaller hardware companies to compete because this kind of software is very much a scale business in terms of investment and training data needed to make the assistant smart," Fogg said.
Fogg added that across all of its devices, Samsung will be able to create the same user experience and interface with Viv at the same time.
But it's hard to tell how Viv will work in the real world as it is yet to launch. The platform allows third-party developers to integrate Viv with their apps.
"Viv was built with both consumers and developers in mind. This dual focus is also what attracted us to Viv as an ideal candidate to integrate with Samsung home appliances, wearables and more, as the paradigm of how we interact with technology shifts to intelligent interfaces and voice control," Injong Rhee, chief technology officer of Samsung's mobile business said in a press release.
(Source:www.cnbc.com)
Viv would "work closely" with Samsung's mobile team but operate independently even as the acquisition was made for an undisclosed fee.
As the company looks for new areas of growth from payments to Artificial Intelligence (AT), this is Samsung's fifth acquisition in just over a year and a half.
Siri creators Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham were the founders of Viv. In recent times, Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft which are investing heavily in AI and personal assistant technology and Samsung's acquisition of Viv pits it against such other major technology companies.
Assistant, Google’s AI-powered system that works through its Home hub or smartphones, was launched publicly and unveiled on Tuesday. Amazon’s Echo speaker, which is powered by the AI assistant called Alexa, was recently launched in the U.K.
Areas where Samsung can create revenue streams from services is the present lookout of the South Korean company as it looks at a world that is beyond just hardware sales. For example, Samsung Pay, its contactless payment service, was launched by the company last year.
In addition to bringing the plethora of devices in its ecosystem from smartwatches to home appliances, Samsung will also be able to bring a digital personal assistant to its phones with the addition of Viv. Through the company SmartThings which it bought in 2014 for $200 million, Samsung also has its own smart home hub.
"Samsung has an ecosystem of devices many of which really benefit from voice control and intelligent agents," Ian Fogg, head of mobile at IHS Markit, told CNBC by phone.
"What it indicates is that Samsung's appetite to be a major player not just in hardware, not just in operating systems on watches or TV, but a layer that has services behind the hardware. These investments will make it increasingly hard for smaller hardware companies to compete because this kind of software is very much a scale business in terms of investment and training data needed to make the assistant smart," Fogg said.
Fogg added that across all of its devices, Samsung will be able to create the same user experience and interface with Viv at the same time.
But it's hard to tell how Viv will work in the real world as it is yet to launch. The platform allows third-party developers to integrate Viv with their apps.
"Viv was built with both consumers and developers in mind. This dual focus is also what attracted us to Viv as an ideal candidate to integrate with Samsung home appliances, wearables and more, as the paradigm of how we interact with technology shifts to intelligent interfaces and voice control," Injong Rhee, chief technology officer of Samsung's mobile business said in a press release.
(Source:www.cnbc.com)
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