Adding a little girth and hoping to avoid the gristle, Samsung has beefed up its app store to include roughly 500 curated games and utilities for its mobile devices.
With what Samsung says is a reach to approximately 130 million consumers in 161 countries, Samsung Galaxy Apps include 200 universal apps and 300 apps that focus on emerging markets in India.
Tarun Malik, Samsung Electronics' director of media solutions center for southwest Asia, said his company was flipping the existing model for app stores upside down, delivering heavily curated content instead of including millions of apps that would likely remain disregarded or unseen by consumers.
"By introducing an assorted selection of best apps across key consumer interest categories like Ecommerce, Travel, Food, Media, Utility Services, etc, Samsung has simplified the consumer experience and enhanced discoverability of relevant apps," stated Malik. "Samsung Galaxy Apps will increase app adoption momentum in India by offering flexibility of payment through mobiles, developer partnerships and focus on marquee apps."
Jeffrey Yuwono, a tech blogger and co-founder of the Feecha app, said his app didn't thrive as expected when it was released on Samsung's original app store. While Yuwono stated he didn't think Samsung would be able to secure an impressive collection of exclusive apps, he said the South Korean tech company's new model could be a nice complement to the Google Play store, instead of a competitor, if they offered curated apps.
"These selections won't be based on popularity but quality," stated Yuwono. "They shouldn't look like Google Play's top lists; because as experts, Samsung will be able to discover excellence before the mass market does. They become talent scouts prowling bars for the next big music hit. This way the Samsung store will mean something."
The three subsections of the revamped Samsung Galaxy Apps store include "Best picks," "Top" and "For Galaxy." The Galaxy-centric For Galaxy section of the app store is subdivided into "Galaxy Gifts," "Galaxy Essentials," "Apps for Professionals" and "Galaxy Specials," apps specifically created by using Samsung SDKs.
Samsung said its new app store would help consumers find better ways to use their Samsung mobile devices and said it would deliver promotions to push the platform forward.
"At Samsung, we continuously strive to create value for our customers by providing differentiated solutions and services coupled with innovative devices," stated WonPyo Hong, president of the Media Solution Center at Samsung Electronics. "Samsung Galaxy Apps is an extension of that promise, as it offers our customers exclusive apps to enrich their experience."
