Samsung solicits devs for its home media ecosystem

Kicking off its first ever developer conference today in San Francisco, consumer electronics heavyweight Samsung began its first major push to draw app and game devs into its growing ecosystem of interconnected products. The smartphone and television manufacturer showed off five new and updated software development kits at the conference, which was attended by a reported 1,300 developers. Developer point man Curtis Sasaki joined Samsung Telecommunications America president Gregory Lee in painting a bright future for the Samsung product line, announcing smart TV integration with Pandora as well as a partnership with Unity to bring multiscreen play to Samsung-brand screens and phones. Samsung believes it is in a strong position to start bringing in developers, with a solid product line and a reliable foothold in the smartphone market -- just behind Apple, globally, and with an especially strong presence in Asia. That stable foundation, together with the flexibility to pivot on its (still young) developer outreach efforts, gives the company a competitive edge, it says. "It's not like we've been doing it for a long time," said Lee, as reported by All Things D. "We have tremendous potential for upside, because we're just getting started on this."