Samsung has the tools to lure developers to their hardware, and they’re showing them off at SDC13
Samsung’s Gregory Lee kicked off the conference by welcoming the more than 1,300 attendees from 33 nations.
“We have tremendous reach around the world,” Lee said. “And in most cases, we’re number one in smartphones in all those markets. And we have products in every segments, at every price point.
“The applications that you develop will reach all across our devices, not just smartphones, tablets, PCs, but also TVs, and enterprise solutions.”
Of course, the main focus is on mobile (where Samsung makes a ton of money) so that means Android. These tools will help developers who want to take advantage of the hardware features Samsung adds to their devices, and it’s great to see them digging in and catering to developers who can (and want to) get great software on some of the most popular mobile devices sold today.
A quick look at each of the new SDKs:
- Samsung Multiscreen SDK is an all-new SDK that allows developers take advantage of Samsung’s market leadership in smartphones and smart TVs. Based on a cloud publishing system, the Multiscreen SDK includes APIs for one-touch discovery and pairing of devices, which allows for content sharing across devices.
- A streamlined version of the Samsung Mobile SDK is now available. The SDK now combines 10 individual packages, including the latest groundbreaking S Pen, Media Control, Professional Audio, and Gesture, into a single integrated SDK for easier overall development.
- Samsung has partnered with Unity Technologies to create the Samsung Multiscreen Gaming SDK. It is a gaming engine built on top of the Samsung Multiscreen SDK that allows game developers to create immersive multiscreen gaming experiences that people play on any big screen TV using a Samsung smartphone or tablet as a console.
- The Samsung Smart TV SDK lets developers and content partners create applications for Samsung Smart TVs. This version includes WebEngine 2014 for support of next year’s Smart TVs, as well as Samsung Connect for multiscreen support. The SDK also now supports Smart Home development, closed captioning so that subtitles can appear in video apps, and improved content filtering and search.
- The Samsung KNOX SDK provides security and management enhancements, which enables enterprises to support both Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) without compromising either corporate security or employee privacy.
Some, like the Knox SDK and Smart TV SDK will encompass more than Android. But they will allow for other systems to interact with those Samsung devices (as well as iOS and any device that can run Java or compiled C++ code) to get things on track.
Of course, the Mobile and Multiscreen SDKs will fit right in with what we know everyone with a new Galaxy device wants — apps that take advantage of Samsung’s technology. Using these tools, developers can add to their existing applications as well as build new ones that do they things you love them to do.
Things are just kicking off at SDC13, so stay tuned for more!