Samsung's Bixby digital assistant may miss spring US launch

Samsung conceded in early April that the English-language version of Bixby, its largely applauded personal digital assistant, wouldn’t be ready in time for the US launch of the Galaxy S8. The South Korean electronics giant didn’t give a specific reason

for the delay but promised the voice control feature would eventually land on its flagship smartphone later in the spring.

Now, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, Bixby may miss its spring launch window entirely.

Citing people familiar with the situation, the publication is reporting that the English version of the virtual assistant won’t debut until at least late June. Considering June 20 is the first official day of summer in the states, it’s entirely possible that Samsung will indeed miss the spring timeframe.

One source said that in internal testing, Bixby is struggling to comprehend English syntax and grammar.

A spokesperson for Samsung said in an e-mailed statement to the Journal that Bixby Voice benefits from time to further enhance natural language understanding, adding that they are currently growing their user testing in the US to prepare for launch.

Samsung launched its Galaxy S8 smartphone on April 21. It’s largely viewed as one of the best smartphones Samsung has ever put out thanks largely to its forward-looking design and is among the top Android handsets currently on the market.