On Monday, Samsung kicked off its first developers conference by announcing the released of five updated software development kits (SDKs) for its mobile devices and smart TVs. The new SDKs are more streamlined than previous versions.
The company said one of its goals of the event is to show developers the breadth of the Samsung platform and encourage them to optimize their apps for Samsung devices. “This is the one conference that developers can now come to learn about the breath of Samsung products,” said Samsung’s Curtis Sasaki. “In the past if a developer wanted to learn about mobile development we’d have a developer day for mobile developers, but if a developer wanted to learn about developing for our television platform they had to attend a separate event. Our goal here is to bring it all together because we see new opportunities around developers trying to differentiate.”
At least one developer in attendance was impressed by Samsung’s efforts. “Their communication level with us was so effective compared to other large companies we’ve worked with, that I was pleasantly surprised,” said Damien Patton, CEO of Banjo. “[Samsung] should be trying to raise their presence in the Valley because they’re largest device manufacturer in the world and most developers still have this iPhone-first mentality.”
