Bixby Marketplace is Open for Business… In Some Countries

It’s been more than two years since Bixby, Samsung’s answer to Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, was initially launched (and we’re still waiting for the Samsung Galaxy Home to appear!), but the Bixby Marketplace was finally announced as being open for business this week. The marketplace has been the missing cog in the Bixby setup, with Samsung users eagerly waiting for the long promised third party integration to set the assistant apart from the competition and make Bixby more of a household name.

Customised AI

Bixby’s foundations have always been in customisation, yet until now Samsung has failed to deliver. Google Assistant has ‘services’, and Alexa has its ‘skills’, but it’s only with the launch of the new marketplace that Bixby is finally able to offer its ‘capsules’; third party apps that are compatible with the AI assistant and make it easy for users to tailor Bixby to better suit their needs. While Google Maps and Spotify have become early marketplace staples, it is expected that the launch of Bixby Marketplace will open Bixby up to becoming a more open platform and a firm favourite of app developers.

A Slow But Steady Start

Upon launch, around 50 third party apps were published into the Bixby Marketplace, so there’s still a long way to go before Samsung catches up with Amazon, who are currently leading the way with their 9000+ ‘skills’ for Alexa. However, early browsing suggests that there’s much more to come, with categories covering everything from food and drink, and games and fun to business and finance, and productivity.

The Bixby Developer Portal, an open artificial intelligence platform, has been open since last year, and local developer sessions have been held across the United States in cities such as Brooklyn and Santa Monica, so it is expected that more ‘capsules’ will become available in the near future as the marketplace expands globally.

Unfortunately, Bixby Marketplace has, to date, only been launched across the United States and Korea, leaving Samsung users in other parts of the world, including the United Kingdom, still waiting. More details are expected to be released at the next Samsung Developer Conference scheduled for October 2019, although whether or not Bixby Marketplace will be enough to really thrust Bixby into the limelight alongside its more established counterparts like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant is yet to be seen.