Ron Amadeo
Reuters and Bloomberg independently report that Google is pressuring Samsung to move away from its duplicate Android ecosystem and instead promote Google apps. Both sites saw “correspondence” between the two companies, which saw Google pressure Samsung to promote the Play Store and Google Assistant over the Galaxy App Store and Samsung’s Bixby assistant. Apparently, Google was willing to open its wallet and pay Samsung to make it happen.
Bloomberg’s interpretation of the negotiations is rather vague, saying the deal “would promote Google’s digital assistant and Play Store for apps in [Samsung] devices. “The latest Reuters report is much more specific, saying that Samsung is” considering removing its virtual assistant Bixby and Galaxy Apps Store from their mobile devices. “Reuters continues by saying that” Google is hanging more lucrative terms for Samsung than in past deals if you pull out of your app strategy. “Part of Google’s immense Android protection network is to share the advertising revenue and revenue from the Play Store app with phone makers, and to give Samsung a bigger share is an easy way to bribe the South Korean company to submit.
If Samsung really would be willing to kill Bixby and the Galaxy app store is up in the air. Samsung has invested lots of money into Bixby since its launch in 2017, but Bixby has not been very successful. Samsung acquired assistant startup Viv Labs, which was founded by the creators of Siri, and put the company to work to improve Bixby. But Samsung’s voice assistant still can’t be in the same crowd as Google’s assistant, Apple’s Siri, and Amazon’s Alexa.
Voice assistants are primarily interfaces to a search engine and a service ecosystem, two things Samsung doesn’t really invest in, making it difficult for the company to turn Bixby into something useful. When you say “take note”, where is it going? Google and Apple have an extensive ecosystem for notes, music, reminders, calendar events, photos, maps, and more, all available from your phone and the Web. The gap in Samsung’s ecosystem means that Bixby relies on a network of third-party services or control apps on its Samsung phone, which are mostly holders of Google’s base Android apps.
Samsung’s Bixby ships on its Android devices, its Tizen smart watches, and some coolers (no, really). But that is all. Samsung announced a Bixby smart speaker as the “Galaxy Home” in 2018, but almost two years have passed and the product is nowhere to be seen. Samsung switched to a cheaper “Galaxy Home Mini”, but the Home Mini doesn’t seem to have become a commercial product either. Samsung offered it as a free bonus for some Galaxy S20 pre-orders in South Korea, but it’s not for sale. The true test of a voice assistant is a smart speaker, which has no interface other than voice, and Samsung doesn’t appear to be sure of Bixby’s ability to do so. The main problem I see when killing Bixby is that it would leave Samsung smart watches without a voice assistant. I doubt that Google will create the Google Assistant for Tizen watches.
Samsung’s Galaxy app store is used to update Samsung’s main Android apps that ship with a phone, but there is really no reason to keep it in most countries. Fully trusting the Play Store is difficult since Google Play is not available in China, so in that country the Samsung app store is useful. However, the company’s app store doesn’t appear to be entirely successful in China, either: The AppInChina App Store Index ranks Samsung as the 15th most popular app store in China.
Ron Amadeo
I find it hard to imagine Samsung leaving Bixby and the Galaxy app store when it’s been so concerned about its dependence on Google in the past. Bloomberg blames the coronavirus for why Samsung would be open to something like this, saying that “the slump in demand for mobile devices during the Covid-19 pandemic has intensified the company’s need for revenue and weakened its negotiating position with a key partner. “
Currently, Google products have a very strong default location on Samsung phones. Both the Play Store and the Google search bar are shipped on the first home screen, and Google is the default search engine. The last time we saw the Google Play Store and Android app license terms, the location and breach of Google services were enshrined in the contract. Google made things like search bar location and Play Store icons a requirement for licensing the company’s closed-source Android apps – Google wanted places on the home screen.
The EU actually took Google to the test for its placement rules, saying Google’s license terms were anti-competitive. Google’s argument was that Android development was offered to OEMs for free, and the inclusion and placement of these apps financed their development through ad and app revenue. Google’s concession to EU regulators was to add a level of paid flexibility to Google Play licenses, where OEMs could pay up to $ 40 to break down Google apps and location requirements.
Nothing about Google’s licensing terms prevents phone manufacturers from creating competitive and duplicate services, and on a Samsung phone, the Galaxy App Store also lives on the home screen, right next to the Play Store. Bixby generally has its own dedicated hardware button on the side of a Samsung phone, and while it can now be reassigned to a different app, it specifically can’t be assigned to the Google Assistant.
Reuters says “companies aim to finalize terms by Friday.” The launch of Samsung Galaxy Note 20 is next week, which seems too early to see drastic changes in the software. But we will be attentive to the importance of Bixby in the presentation of the company.
