San Francisco to London, the Days of Developers

It was less than a month ago that Samsung held its first conference for developers in the United States, the Samsung Developers Conference 2013 (SDC 2013) @ San Francisco. However, with developers all over the globe, how could everyone possibly make it that far?

Well, not to worry. Europe had its own version of the Developers Conference called ‘Samsung Developer Day’ (SDD)! The event, held on the 18th of November at the London Film Museum was Samsung’s first annual European Developer Day. Here is what you need to know.

SDC 2013 vs. SDD

One notable difference between Samsung Developers Day and SDC 2013 was that SDD was a smaller, more intimate event for European developers and it was focused more on the European developer community. Although SDD was a much cozier event compared to SDC 2013, there were attendees from 16 countries and over 120 companies were represented.

The basic philosophy of SSD was the same as SDC 2013. Samsung recognizes that developers hold the key to the future and Samsung is eager to assist the developers in creating the apps of the future. As many developers are already familiar from SDC 2013, Samsung has announced a variety of new and advanced tools and services for developers, such as SDKs and In App Purchases. SDD provided a great opportunity for the European developers community to get to know about these new tools and services in more detail.

The Day

The Samsung Developers Day opened with a welcome speech by SP Kim, President of Samsung Europe. Then, similar to SDC 2013, with Lee Epting as the presenter, the keynote was held; presenting and demonstrating all the SDKs and services that were going to be featured on the day.

There were two session categories for the Samsung Developer Day: technical sessions and commercial sessions. The following are some of the topics from the in-depth technical sessions:

*Samsung Mobile SDK combines ten individual packages such as the S Pen, media control, professional audio, and gesture all combined to offer easier overall development.

*Samsung Multiscreen SDK is about true convergence. It includes APIs for one-touch discovery and pairing of devices.

*Multiscreen gaming SDK is a gaming engine built on the multiscreen SDK. This allows games developers to create multiscreen gaming experiences, where gamers can play on any big screen TV using a Samsung smartphone or tablet as a console.

*Samsung Smart TV SDK lets developers build apps for Samsung’s line of smart TVs. It now supports smart home development, closed captioning and improved content filtering and search

Topics, such as ‘Differentiating your Product/Service using Samsung Technology’, ‘How to Optimize your Partnership with Samsung’ and ‘Creating Successful NFC Apps with Innovative Use Cases’ were available for the commercial sessions.

The Commitment

Lee Epting, Vice President of Media Solution Center Europe said, “We want to connect with developers that will get excited about pre-release technology, are open to communication and have lots of ways to put our hardware through its paces. This event is the perfect place to build the foundations of a great working relationship” 

The SDC 2013 and SDD strongly suggest that Samsung is committed to working closely with engaged developers. Samsung realizes that innovation that will permanently and positively alter how we live will be largely shaped by developers. Samsung is committed to providing the technical support developers need to create the best apps. All the SDKs, such as Samsung Mobile, Multiscreen and Smart TV SDK, show that commitment. It looks like Samsung will be continuing to improve the eco-system for developers from here on out.