Samsung Apps: an app store for every device

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Posted on 8 Jan 2010 at 21:59

CES 2010: In what can only be described as a hugely ambitious project, Samsung has announced Samsung Apps - a new app store designed to bring cross-platform apps to its entire product range.

The ambitious plan starts in the living room, with a selection of the electronics giant's high-definition TVs for 2010 including the store.

It's very similar to the type of application store we've become accustomed to on our smartphones, enabling users to browse a wide variety of apps - both free and paid-for - and download them.

Samsung also plans to integrate these apps into its Blu-ray players and home theatre systems, as well as making them compatible with mobile phones. Tim Baxter, Samsung America's President, said that the firm's software development kit would mean that there isn't a lot of extra work for developers to do to make them cross compatible.

Personally, I'm not convinced this is the way to go because it ties consumers to one brand, although more interoperability between devices will be welcome if it can be more widely adopted across the consumer electronics industry.

Sadly, this seems to be an increasingly worrying direction at Samsung at the moment, following its decision to adopt a number of proprietary standards. It insists that the standards are open, but its Bada operating system and GX10 interchangeable lens camera are just two examples of developing closed standards instead of adopting what's already out there.

Author: Tim Smalley in Las Vegas

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