Samsung launches €100,000 prize fund for TV app developers

18 Oct 2010

Samsung has kicked off a €100,000 Smart TV App Developer competition aimed at populating the world’s first TV App Store, the company revealed today.

At an event in London attended by more than 100 developers and industry experts, the company unveiled its vision of the future of TV.

Entitled Smart TV, Samsung intends to do for internet-enabled TVs what Android applications did for mobile phones. Just as people have become familiar with rich, interactive content via applications on their smartphones, they’ll soon be able to access content which is relevant and local to them from the comfort of their own homes through Internet@TV.

Samsung’s Smart TV Challenge is an opportunity for developers to create an app, specially built to be shown on a Samsung Smart TV.

The winning app, demonstrating the best in creativity, functionality and relevance for home entertainment will be announced early next year and the successful developers will walk away with a combined prize fund of more than €100,000.

Throughout the Application Developer Day, the news continued to arrive thick and fast with Samsung announcing the launch of the 65-inch 8000 Series 3D LED Smart TV, the world’s largest LED Smart TV.

Commenting on the Application Developer Day, Kevin Maguire, country manager, Consumer Electronics at Samsung Ireland, said: “This really is the next step in the evolution of television. We are encouraging all experienced and wannabe developers to get involved and create their very own app to be shown on a Samsung Smart TV.

“Consumer viewing habits and choices have become more sophisticated and as a result, users expect that a richer level of content will be available to them. At Samsung we believe that Smart TV helps to address these needs and, through the local developer community, we will be able to populate the world’s first TV App Store with content which is interesting, visually stimulating and relevant to the viewer,” Maguire said.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com