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Samsung is still reeling from the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco and will likely do so for the foreseeable future, but the South Korean smartphone maker is already cooking up ways to make a comeback. It recently announced that the next iteration of its flagship Galaxy S smartphone series, the S8 will come with the Viv smart assistant. It’s made by the same people responsible for bringing Apple’s Siri to life and they claim that Viv is better.
On Sunday, Samsung announced its plans to integrate its newly acquired asset to its upcoming S8 line in an effort to bounce back from the rut that the exploding batteries of its Note 7 phablets put it in, Reuters reports. The giant smartphone maker had acquired Viv Labs Inc. last month and is planning on integrating the feature in all of its products, not just smartphones.
The South Korean company is betting much on the impact that the S8 will have on the market to help fix its ruined reputation. The announcement to start offering its own smart assistant service is also meant to drum up excitement among investors. Right now, Samsung is estimated to lose $5.6 billion by the time Q1 in 2017 comes around. It badly needs the positive PR.
Without going into specifics as to what the smart assistant will offer, the company did say that it will provide support for third-party apps. This will mark Samsung’s official entry into the contentious AI smart assistant market that practically every major tech company is now involved in.
Samsung has a particular edge when it comes to the AI assistant industry as well, The Verge notes, because of its significant presence in the global smartphone market. Even with the Note 7 debacle, the smartphone maker still holds a substantial slice of the pie. If it can offer a strong product with the S8, the largest maker of smart devices in the world might just come back better than ever.
