“As a committed leader of the Tizen platform, we strive to further benefit, expand upon and evolve the Tizen ecosystem,” said Woncheol Chai, VP of Global Product Management, Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics. “We’re excited to launch this new incentive program to help develop and bring the best of mobile apps to the Tizen community as well as provide customers with a better mobile experience.”

The new program will run from February through October 2017, and developers who create mobile apps for Tizen, such as gaming, social and lifestyle apps, are eligible to apply. Every month, each of the top 100 apps downloaded from the Tizen store and pre-registered to participate in the Tizen Mobile App Incentive Program will win $10,000.*

Apps already available in the Tizen store, as well as new apps, can be entered to win. All developers must do is ensure they register their apps for participation by visiting incentive.tizenstore.com. Individuals can begin applying to participate in January 2017. The winners will be notified on the 10^th of each month starting on March 10, 2017 and ending on November 10, 2017.

The announcement was shared today at the NASSCOM Game Developers Conference, India’s largest confluence of game developers. For more information on the new incentive program, please visit incentive.tizenstore.com.

Tizen developers can also monetize their apps through mobile advertisements with the InMobi Ad Software Development Kit (SDK). Developers can learn more and download the SDK at developer.tizen.org.

* In the event that two apps reach the exact same number of downloads, the earlier registered app will receive the $10,000 prize.

For Young Jun Lee, 12-year-old middle school student, traveling to the Samsung Developer Conference was a unique chance to be treated like any other app developer. While he was still in elementary school, Young Jun won the 2015 Junior Software Cup in Korea for his app Don’t Forget Me, which helps people to water and take care of their plants.

Because of that impressive achievement, Samsung Electronics invited Young Jun to attend SDC 2016, where he presented his app and met with developers from around the world. Held in San Francisco on April 27-28, the SDC 2016 featured more than 4,000 developers, coming together to discuss the latest technologies and future of innovation.

Samsung Newsroom spoke with Young Jun to talk about his experiences attending SDC as the youngest app developer there, programming and plants, as well as his plans for the future.

Q. What is this Don’t Forget Me app?

So, it’s basically an app that helps you remember when to water your plants. It kind of gives you an alarm when to water your plants, and it has some other features, like drawing the plants and sharing that information. People might think that watering is something boring but I tried to make it fun.

Q. There were about 1,000 teams in the Junior Software Cup. Why do you think you were one of the winners?

The subject of the cup was “family,” so a lot of people made awesome projects about communication and family. But I think I won a grand prize because I used plants as an intermediary subject, which was really new for the judges. Having a new approach I think really helped me. Having a mobile part of the app helped, too. Because my program needed that. You can’t really run to a desktop every time you water a plant.

Q. How did you get interested in programming?

Actually, my dad bought me a book that oddly enough was a book about programming. It was a kind of guide that explained the basics of syntax and a bit about algorithms. He didn’t really expect me to have so much interest in it, but I was really interested in how programs can be used to simulate living things and help them. That first book was about the C programming language, and then I think I used C# and Java.

Because I used to make some personal project with Java, I’m really used to it. I was really interested in living things, so I searched for information about programming about living things. And I made an algorithm to plan a shortest path, a kind of utility program. But it all really interested me.

I also really liked Scratch (Educational programming language). I learned it by myself, then studied it more in an after-school club.

Q. How was the SDC?

I was really excited that I could meet people that I could actually talk to about programming and share opinions. I was extremely excited, although I was a bit nervous for the keynote speech.

I also got to see many projects, with technology I had never heard of. It was really like being in the future or something. Everyone was kind of active and they treated me kindly, so I really learned a lot. Another reason I really liked SDC is that they didn’t look at me as a student, but as a developer. I’d like to meet more people like that.

Q. What was coolest thing to learn about at SDC?

There was the cloud platform called Samsung ARTIK. I was kind of curious about that. I wandered around the booth in the Artik corner and learned more about it. It was kind of like Raspberry Pi-slash-Arduino (open-source educational kits for learning computing and building digital devices), but for IoT. I thought it was pretty awesome.

Q. What would you like to do in the future? Do you want to continue programming?

Actually, one of my goals is to become a biologist. The reason I first got interested in biology was because of insects. I really like to keep insects in my place. Beatles and things. That was kind of the reason I first got an interest in biology. And from then I was also interested in the environment and how these living things are linked.

But I think programming will be applied to every subject in the future, and I’m really looking forward to combining the subject with programming. I actually believe I can make a better world with it.

The SDC 2016 event, which ran April 27 and 28 in San Francisco, was one more example of Samsung’s dedication to inspiring young people to learn more about coding. The company organizes Solve for Tomorrow competitions and Mobile App Academies around the world and participates in a variety of coding initiatives, like the EU Code Week in Europe. As coding has become recognized as the new literacy, Samsung has developed programs designed to foster lifelong skills like critical thinking, creative problem-solving and collaboration.

Student from the United States, Argentina, and Korea met with Dongjin Koh, the President of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics.

Attending SDC 2016 from the United States was Emily Waite, a 12^th-grade student from Massachusetts and one of the winners of the 2015 US Mobile App Academy. Emily created Med Kid, an app to incentivize children with serious illnesses to take their medications. Each time a child takes their medicine, they get an in-app reward, turning a serious and sometimes difficult task into a fun game.

From Korea, Young Jun Lee came to explain his mobile app Don’t Forget Me, which helps families manage their household plants together, like remembering the watering schedule and recording the plants’ growth history. Lee was just 12 years old when he won the first Junior Software Cup in Korea in 2015 for his creative app. More than 1,000 teams entered the 2015 competition, which asked young people to create apps under the theme of “family.”

Young Jun Lee, the winner of Junior Software Cup from Korea, explains the app he developed to other young coders from the United States and Argentina.

From Argentina, three middle-school winners of the 2014 Solve for Tomorrow competition came to present their winning project, an app for improving evacuation during flood emergencies.  Not only did Samsung think their app was a winner, so did their local government, which added it to the local Civil Defense system to help protect people when the local Lujan River floods.

A student on the Solve for Tomorrow Argentina Team explains their winning app to developers.

All told, Samsung has run a variety of Coding Initiative projects in 14 countries, with more than 690,000 students participating. The goal is to make young people creators of technology, not just consumers, so they can actively participate in shaping their own futures.

Samsung Electronics and Legrand today showcased, at the Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco, the world’s first Thread-enabled IoT light switch powered by the SAMSUNG ARTIK end-to-end platform.

The SAMSUNG ARTIK IoT platform is a fully integrated chip to cloud solution, which helps companies like Legrand speed up their product development process, reduce time to market, and improve total cost of ownership for their IoT products. Additionally, the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform provides world-class security from device to hub to cloud to data management, while adhering to the fundamental protocols of the Thread standard.

For Legrand, the SAMSUNG ARTIK IoT platform provided full support for the Thread standard, the foundation for the connected home. Thread was designed to easily and securely connect hundreds of devices to each other and to the cloud using real internet protocols over a low-power wireless mesh network. Built on open standards and with IPv6/6LoWPAN protocols, Thread’s innovative approach to networking offers many advantages over other wireless standards, including a secure and reliable mesh network with no single point of failure, simple connectivity and low power.

“Legrand is a world leader in home electrical devices and automation and we’re excited to partner with Samsung to offer more choices to our customers by delivering an industry leading, connected light switch,” said Brian DiBella, President Electrical Wiring Systems, Legrand, North America. “In combination with the SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud, our smart light switches interoperate with other smart-home products and effectively serve as the central nervous system of the home to make life simpler, more convenient and more secure for our customers.”

World-class companies like Legrand can focus on their core areas of expertise—designing devices, applications, end-user experiences and services – while leveraging the SAMSUNG ARTIK end-to-end IoT platform to help them transition faster to the world of digitization.

“We are thrilled with the tight collaboration between Legrand and the SAMSUNG ARTIK development and business teams,” said Dr. Byungse So, Executive Vice President and CTO, Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center. “Embracing new technologies like IoT is critical to future success in the ever-demanding smart home and building automation space. By leveraging the strength of the ARTIK end-to-end IoT platform, Legrand will delivered the world’s first Thread enabled IoT smart light switch. Furthermore, Samsung is committed to investing in both technology and business solutions that enable companies like Legrand to fully participate in the digital transformation.”

As a leader in electrical and digital infrastructure solutions for all types of buildings, Legrand helps enhance everyday life for its customers. It partnered with Samsung because it understands that the Internet of Things will open a new era of connected buildings. Legrand’s Eliot program (Electricity and IoT) is designed to hasten the arrival of this era by speeding deployment of Legrand’s connected devices and accelerating the evolution of connected buildings. Eliot will power development of new Legrand products for the benefit of private and professional users alike.

The Legrand reference design demonstrations will be available at Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco. For more information or to schedule a meeting, please contact ssic@ssi.samsung.com

About SAMSUNG ARTIK Platform

Samsung ARTIK is an open platform designed to enable faster and simpler development of new enterprise, industrial and consumer applications for the Internet of Things. The platform is designed to deliver a superior end-to-end solution with integrated modules featuring best-in-class security, cloud connectivity, local intelligence and a wealth of partner applications through its rich developer ecosystem. Samsung ARTIK is designed to accelerate development of a new generation of better, smarter IoT devices, solutions and services. More information about Samsung ARTIK, partners and development tools can be found at www.artik.io.

About Legrand

Legrand is the global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures.  Its comprehensive offering of solutions for use in commercial, industrial and residential markets makes it a benchmark for customers worldwide.  Innovation for a steady flow of new products with high added value is a prime vector for growth, including in particular connected devices stemming from Legrand’s global Eliot (Electricity and IoT) program. Legrand reported sales of $5.3 billion in 2015.  Legrand has a strong presence in North America, with a portfolio of well-known product lines that include C2G, Cablofil, Electrorack, Middle Atlantic, Nuvo, On-Q, Ortronics, Pass & Seymour, QMotion, Quiktron, Raritan, Vantage, Watt Stopper, and Wiremold.  Legrand is listed on Euronext Paris and is a component stock of indexes including the CAC40, FTSE4Good, MSCI World, ASPI, Corporate Oekom Rating and DJSI (ISIN code FR0010307819). www.legrand.com.

Tizen Developer Summit (TDS) is being held in Bengaluru, India between July 30-31, 2015.

TDS is an annual global event sponsored by Samsung Electronics and Tizen Association to assist local app and platform developers interested in contributing to the growth of the Tizen ecosystem. TDS has also attracted companies and organizations such as InMobi, Unity, Airtel and Nasscom.

TDS offers an excellent opportunity to learn from core Tizen developers and understand the technology behind the Tizen platform, app development, porting, and monetization through the Tizen Store. The two-day event consists of keynote speeches, technical sessions and workshops for app developers, platform designers, and Independent Software Vendors (ISV) to understand the technology in the Tizen platform. Multiple discussions and knowledge sharing sessions are being held to educate, engage and excite existing and potential developers.

“TDS 2015 Bengaluru is significant as nearly half of the apps in the Tizen Store are created by developers from India. This reflects the enormous opportunity in India where a large base of platform and app developers continues to show significant interest to develop Tizen OS and high-quality apps,” said Dr. Aloknath De, Chief Technology Officer and VP-Samsung R&D Institute India Bangalore.

“This is also the first Summit which is being organized in the backdrop of commercially available products, for example, the Samsung Z1 smart phone, which sold over one million units since its launch and Tizen Operating System powered SUHD TV which was recently launched in India.” Dr. Aloknath De added.

The keynote speeches was delivered by Dr. Aloknath De on Tizen platform upgrade features, the need for open platforms, current Tizen devices and the new opportunities in the Internet of Things (IoT) space. Ajay Kumar, Joint Secretary of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, addressed the audience on the ‘Digital India’ initiative and how open source is playing a crucial role in e-governance, entrepreneurship and transforming India into a knowledge economy.

Other keynote speakers included Naveen Tewari, CEO of InMobi, who spoke on the evolution of mobile monetization from banners to native advertising to more advanced feature advertising and its impact on Tizen developers. Sanjeev Kashyap, CTO and Head of Satellite Network Group at Airtel, spoked about the growth and change in Indian DTV viewership patterns, the unique application demands of Samsung Smart TV and plans for upcoming applications on the Tizen platform.

New Software Development Kits released:

New Software Development Kits, Tizen 2.3.1 and Tizen 2.4 beta were announced at TDS. The new SDK, Tizen 2.3.1 can be integrated with Wearables allowing developers to build new kinds of Wearable apps ready for commercial distribution. It also supports native app development making all applications lightweight. Tizen 2.4 beta includes Dynamic Animation Library (DALi) for full 3D applications be built. It promises high performance, low power, and memory consumption. Cloudbox enables users to get more content from several Cloud systems. While Contextual Triggers help to customize Tizen functions based on users behavior.

The Tizen OS offers application capability across mobile devices, wearables, TVs, and other home appliances, and this potentially paves the way for incredible convergence opportunities across device categories. TDS offers unique and innovative solutions for a wide range of content creators and it is the best way to interact with local developers and companies working within the Tizen ecosystem.

It was also announced that the next Tizen Developer Conference (TDC) will be held September 17-18, 2015 in Shenzhen, China. TDC is an annual event for open source and app developers who are interested in contributing to the growth of the Tizen ecosystem worldwide.

Tizen is open source and provides an excellent experience for both native and HTML5 application developers. For additional details about the conference and sessions, please visit http://tizendevsummit.com/index.html

Samsung Electronics announced that it will hold a new free webinar for developers of printing apps, giving them a head start when working with the latest Software Development Kit (SDK) for Samsung’s Smart UX Center. The webinar will take place at 3:30pm GMT on Wednesday, July 15, 2015, on the Samsung WebEx portal website. The Smart UX Center is an Android-based printing user interface that allows users to customize document management and output functions according to their specific needs. The Smart UX Center can be used in the Smart MultiXpress series, Samsung’s flagship multifunction printer range.

“Samsung understands that we cannot build a rich printing solutions ecosystem with innovative content and services on our own; we need the support and expertise of our customers, partners and the developer community. This new webinar will share the latest insights and help us to work together, so that we all can make printing simple and easy, and drive productivity for business,” said David SW Song, Senior Vice President of Strategy Marketing and Sales, Printing Solutions, Samsung Electronics. “This webinar will build on our first Smart UX Center SDK webinar in June this year, which received extremely positive feedback from printing app developers and other attendees. In fact, as a result SDK downloads increased by 20%.”

From download to verification: A step-by-step guide for developers, resellers and dealers

The webinar will provide a detailed, step-by-step guide to developing printing apps, covering everything from downloading the SDK itself, to app testing and registration.

Participating developers will benefit from an enhanced technical understanding, and a clearer view of how they can generate revenue from creating and managing printing apps for Android and Samsung platforms. Dealers and resellers will also benefit from a clearer understanding of how they can better serve current and prospective customers, and grow their business by creating more customized solutions and apps.

As well as introducing the SDK to developers, dealers and resellers, the webinar will also explain Samsung’s vision for the printing solutions ecosystem and show how the included API keys can be used to create printing apps capable of upgrading user interfaces or customizing document management functionality.

Logistics and further information

The webinar will be in English, and anyone who would like to join can do so for free by registering here. Joining instructions will be provided within 12 hours once access has been approved – all attendees are required to register at least 12 hours in advance.

Anyone who would like to download the SDK can visit : http://developer.samsung.com/smart-printing

Further information and additional printing apps developed with the SDK can be downloaded here: https://printingapps.samsung.com/apps.

During the conference, Samsung established its presence with Samsung Code, an event marketed to enterprise app developers and partners that consisted of a full array of interactive technical sessions, hands-on programs and a keynote speech. Samsung Code was also an opportunity to make Samsung B2B SDKs more accessible to developers and partners with the announcement of the latest version of the Samsung Enterprise Alliance Program (SEAP), which enables the creation of apps with higher security and more features to better meet the needs of the enterprise market.

“As Android OS adoption continues to grow in the business environment, Samsung is strengthening its commitment to providing developers with the tools needed to create high quality and innovative business solutions for Samsung mobile devices,” explains InJong Rhee, Executive Vice President of Enterprise Business, IT & Mobile Division at Samsung Electronics. “This means allowing open access to all necessary collateral that lets developers leverage core Samsung technologies, such as class-leading mobile device security with Samsung’s mobile security platform, KNOX.”

Furthermore, the updated SEAP portal provides developers with free and easy access to B2B development, sales and marketing tools and resources, including educational manuals, materials and a community forum for networking, collaboration and establishing expertise.

Keynote speaker and Vice President of Enterprise Business, IT & Mobile Division at Samsung Electronics, Rick Segal emphasized that the company aims to reach out directly to developers and make sure they understand all of the opportunities they have to get their applications in front of enterprises around the world, explaining, “We will help you. We have many co-marketing opportunities and things we do directly with our enterprise customers and we will take you along with us so you that you can make money with those enterprise customers.”

With the release of SEAP for Developers, updates are also coming to SEAP for Partners. Along with access to the SEAP developer portal, new features include a streamlined registration process, the ability to obtain commercial licenses for market or internal distribution, and access to Samsung mobile devices for testing. Samsung and its partners will be able to work more closely together, with partners receiving support priority plus access to sales and marketing assets.

The launch of the new friction-free portals lets SEAP cover a full range of partnerships, giving SDK experience and go-to-market support of developer and partner solutions alike. Additionally, Samsung will continue to work with developers and partners toward the goal of achieving success together in the B2B segment through Samsung Code, which is slated to be held again at the AnDevCon in Boston from July 29-31.

You can visit the SEAP portal for developers at https://seap.samsung.com/developer.

TDS 2015 Bengaluru keynote speeches will be made by Aloknath De, CTO & VP, Samsung R&D Institute India – Bangalore, who will speak about the Tizen platform upgrade features and current Tizen devices with new opportunities in the internet of Things(IoT) space and the need for open platforms. Ram Sewak Sharma, Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India, will also give a keynote speech about the ‘Digital India’ initiative and how open source is playing a crucial role in e-governance, entrepreneurship and transforming India into a knowledge economy.

Other keynote speakers include Naveen Tewari, the founder of InMobi, will discuss how mobile monetization has evolved from banners to native advertising to more advanced feature advertising, and how it will impact Tizen developers going forward. Sanjeev Kashyap, CTO and Head of Satellite Network Group at Bharti Telemedia, will address the growth and change in Indian DTV viewership patterns, the unique application demands of the Samsung Smart TV and plans for upcoming applications on the Tizen platform.

In addition to the keynote speeches, tech sessions are divided into four tracks: “Mobile & Platform”, “TV, IoT, Wearable”, “Biz & Panel” and “Workshop.”

Trailblazing with Tizen: An Overview & Roadmap

In this session, we will share our vision and goals for Tizen. We will discuss advantages, versatility and the technical architecture of Tizen. In addition, we will also introduce Tizen features and concepts of device profiles including smartphones, smart TVs, wearables, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), and IoT in the near future.

A Tizen Wearable Overview

Tizen has proven to be a solid platform for development on the wearable platform – the Samsung Gear devices are a testament to this. In this session, we will provide an overview on  the major features and capabilities that are available on Tizen devices. We will go over how you can easily develop on a Gear App with a basic background in web technology.. API and Web UI Framework “TAU(Tizen Advanced UI) ” code samples will be included.

“IoTivity” – Connecting  Things in IoT

In this session, we will go over the APIs introduced by IoTivity’s base framework and the common services for group management of things & soft sensor management. Developers will learn how to write plugins to connect devices built on OIC(Open Interconnect Consortium) standards to communicate with legacy devices using Protocol Manager Service.

For further details about the Tizen Developer Summit (TDS) 2015 Bengaluru, please click here.

Read more: Invitation to Developers: Tizen Developer Summit 2015 Bengaluru