After spending $200 million for the SmartThings software in the summer, Samsung revealed at its second annual Samsung Developer's Conference that all of its smart appliances and mobile will connect to the recently acquired platform.
When Samsung acquired SmartThings, it initially said it wanted to be as hands-off as possible. It's unclear if that approach still holds, but Samsung is betting big on the connected home platform and is inviting developers to do the same.
"Our news today highlights the exciting developments occurring at Samsung and its growing ecosystem of developers and partners, across a wide range of technologies," said Won-Pyo Hong, head of Samsung's Media Solutions Center, at the conference in San Francisco.
All of Samsung's smart appliances will support either SmartThings or Tizen, the Korean tech company's micro OS. Samsung told developers at its conference in San Francisco that they can enjoy interoperability between its software, Tizen and SmartThings, and smart products such as TVs and fridges. The SmartThings hub lets users download a mobile app and use their smartphone like a remote to control connected IoT-connected devices.
The Korean tech company is predicting that there will be at least 20 million connected homes by 2017, giving reason to the amount of weight its putting behind its push into smart homes. SmartThings CEO Alex Hawkinson called Samsung's push into the Internet of Things a bold and big step into the future.
"Going forward, every connected appliance in the Samsung lineup will be connected to the SmartThings platform," Hawkinson said.
Samsung has stubbornly, or valiantly, continued to push its Tizen platform on mobile devices, despite the software's microscopic slice of the market for mobile OSes. Tying Tizen to SmartThings could help bolster the micro OS, as the connected home platform was already bringing top players on board before Samsung swooped in and bought it in August.
Along with Tizen and SmartThings, Samsung talked up 26 software development kits and application programming interfaces at its 2014 developer's conference. Of the 26 developer's kits, the SmartThings and Samsung Internet of Things packages were weaved into each of the sectors on which Samsung is focusing.
Outside of wearables and smart homes, Samsung is also focusing on digital health and virtual reality. While Samsung's wearables will support its Tizen, the tech firm has developed a health platform to facilitate the collection and transmission of sensitive health information.
Samsung's virtual reality aspirations also veer off the Tizen and SmartThings tracks, as the tech company has been partnering with Facebook's Oculus Rift division to push the evolution of video gaming. However, Samsung has been working with its Gear platform as the innovators behind the latest endeavor into VR work to iron out something open and robust enough for third-party development.
