Google has been involved in a fair amount of interesting deals recently, and it seems that the company is targeting a new opportunity. According to popular news outlets, Google is quite keen on convincing Samsung to make a major change.
Leaked correspondence that found its way to the outlets notes that Google wants to pursue Samsung to drop the Bixby voice assistant and Galaxy App Store from future devices and replace them with the Google Assistant and more focus on the Google Play Store.
Money can solve problems
The correspondence also mentions that Samsung is already taking the offer into consideration. To make the idea more attractive, Google has also offered a better deal for the Korean giant in exchange for dropping its dedicated app store, which can’t compete with the Google Play Store in terms of content but seems to be perceived as a threat.
Google shares a part of the revenue obtained from the Play Store app, and ad revenue with smartphone manufacturers and a higher share seem to be quite tempting for Samsung, as it would offer a guaranteed source of income.
Capitalizing on preferences
Samsung has spent a lot of funds on the development of Bixby since it was unveiled in 2017, but the voice assistant failed to make a splash. While it is considerably better than S-Voice, many Samsung users favor Google Assistant as the superior alternative.
While Bixby has been featured on several generations of smartphones, smartwatches, and some refrigerators, Samsung doesn’t seem to be confident enough to release a smart speaker, a device that would put the vocal assistant into the limelight. While two smart speaker models were announced, it is unlikely that they will see the light of day.
A deal could be signed by the end of the week, but only time will show what will happen.
Willie Hahn, senior editor at The Trending Times, writes about the intersection between money and politics with a focus on lobbying and tech articles. Willie previously at the Android Authority and Vice. Willie can be reached by email.
