Bixby launch reportedly delayed due to English-related voice recognition issues

As you may have already heard, Bixby — Samsung's highly touted AI assistant — won't be gracing the Galaxy S8/S8+ at launch. Not in its final form, at least, and not in the U.S. The full-fledged version of Bixby will supposedly launch “later this spring,” according to a brief official statement by Samsung.

According to a new report by the Wall Street Journal, citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter, the English-speaking version of Bixby won't be available at launch, due to its performance not being up to par with its Korean-savvy counterpart.

Internal Sasmung assessments over the last couple of weeks have indicated that the performance of Bixby's voice recognition capabilities in English are lagging behind the AI's performance in Korean, the source claims, which made the company reconsider rolling out Bixby in time for the S8 launch.

Bixby is pushed as one of the key selling points for Samsung's new flagships and its delayed launch may have a somewhat negative effect on initial impressions. On the other hand, Samsung's decision to keep the service under wraps until its fleshed out and ready for release may be the better option in this case, as releasing an unfinished product could be more detrimental to the undertaking.

There is no official information as to when exactly Bixby will hit the U.S., but the source speaking to the WSJ claims that a late May launch is very likely.

source: WSJ (subscription required)