Samsung Prepping Integrated Smartphone, TV Platform

Cisco Umi

Samsung Electronics is planning a joint software platform that will combine content on its TVs and smartphones in an effort to attract both more app developers and customers.

"We have a plan to have a single platform for Samsung TV and phones," Kyungsik Kevin Lee, vice president at Samsung's visual display division, told Reuters.

What wasn't specified is whether Samsung plans to develop the platform using its Bada operating system or if it will run on Android. Already, Apple has launched Apple TV, which lets users rent movies and TV shows through iTunes and other online services, and will soon stream multimedia from the iPhone. Also, this month Google launched Google TV, which will reportedly interconnect with Android smartphones. The move is seen as another enticement by Samsung to woo developers, after launching a developers contest earlier this year to create apps on Bada by offering $2.7 million in cash prizes.

"There is a huge battle for the living room even among the Microsofts and the Dells and HPs of the world so this is not new, but what is new is that the smartphone is increasingly becoming a major computing device for people," said Chris Hazelton, research director, mobile and wireless, at the 451 Group, "so if you're connecting a PC to a TV why not dock your smartphone to the TV also?" The joint platform is also good for consumers who often aren't motivated to download or upload photos taken on their smartphones to a PC, he said.

The growing momentum toward integrating TVs with mobile phones "highlights the increasing computing power of smartphones,'' said Hazelton. "You're always on your smartphone throughout the day, so the idea is when I'm in the house I can link my smartphone to a larger screen so I can interact with my smartphone but look at my TV to view multimedia apps."

Lee did not give a timeframe for when the platform would be ready, but told Reuters developers are still working on it.