Samsung Electronics together with 30 partners, kicked off this year’s Tizen Developer Conference (TDC) 2017 at the Hilton Union Square Hotel in San Francisco, running from May 16-17. In addition to software developers, more than 1,000 service/content partners, device manufacturers and others engaged in the Tizen ecosystem will be participating at the conference.

Centered on the theme “Ready To Connect, Get Involved!”, TDC 2017 will present a vision for the IoT era via expanded opportunities for the attendees to experience the key features of the Tizen 4.0 platform, various technologies and products, and the evolving development environment required for UX and product/application development.

TDC, as an annual technical conference for global developers, is a showcase of Tizen’s new technologies and products. It was held in San Francisco in 2012 for the first time when Tizen 1.0 was launched as an open source project. Since then, and over the past five years, the Tizen OS has evolved into Tizen 4.0 supporting a wide variety of Tizen devices.

“Since launching, Tizen has become the OS for nearly all of Samsung’s products, and with its record of sales growth, proven itself as the most successful Linux-based embedded OS in the world. Among open collaborations, and as we enter the IoT era, we expect Tizen will open new opportunities for the future of IoT,” said Hyogun Lee, Executive Vice President of the Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics and Chair of the Tizen Technical Steering Group.

Extending Tizen Device Ecosystem with Tizen 4.0

The key changes in Tizen 4.0 are optimizations made on the platform for IoT developers to enable rapid creation and commercialization of various applications. While the existing Tizen platform was limited in distribution to devices such as TVs and smartphones, Tizen 4.0 will provide a development environment that can be refined according to the characteristics of various devices by subdividing functional modules. In addition, the Tizen 4.0 platform has been extended to Tizen RT (Real-Time) to involve high-end products such as TVs and mobile devices as well as low-end products such as thermostats, scales, bulbs, and more.

With Tizen Project’s collaboration with Microsoft, developers are now able to more easily develop Tizen applications with popular programming languages. Specifically, the Microsoft .NET and Xamarin UI framework have been introduced to Tizen so that C# language-based applications can be developed in the Visual Studio environment for increased productivity.

In order to expand the ecosystem of Tizen-based IoT devices, Samsung is planning to strengthen cooperation with chip makers such as Samsung ARTIK and Broadlink in China; smart home device manufacturer Commax in Korea; and the location based service provider Glympse in the U.S.

New Tizen Services and Products: ARTIK053 Module and Samsung Z4

At TDC 2017, Samsung will unveil the new ARTIK053 module, a lightweight IoT chipset with integrated real-time processing utilizing the Tizen RT for the first time. The ARTIK 053 module is an affordable IoT solution with high-performance and hardened security for next-generation products like connected home appliances, building products, health care devices, and industrial automation. It also dramatically reduces development time via a 320MHz ARM® Cortex® R4 core with 1.4MB RAM and 8MB Flash, and a pre-certified Wi-Fi radio.

Around the introduction of the ARTIK053 module, an IoT Hands-On Lab session will also be held to develop software for the IoT on the new module utilizing Tizen Studio for RT, which is a lightweight real-time operating system (RTOS) based application development environment.

The Samsung Z4 smartphone will also be showcased at the conference. The Z4 is equipped with a front and rear camera optimized for social media and a wide range of features focused on convenience and productivity, including quick and easy access to the most frequently used functions.

In addition, for Tizen ecosystem enhancement, the Tizen Mobile Incentive Program has been introduced for global application developers to offer a one million dollar prize every month when the app is sold and placed in the Top 100 on the Tizen Store from February to October 2017.

Smart TV Ecosystem and Smart Home Appliances for IoT

Samsung will also showcase a variety of its recent products at the TDC 2017 Exhibition Zone. In particular, attendees will be able to experience display products including QLED TV, and the Frame introduced at CES 2017, as well as Samsung’s diverse and expanding smart TV ecosystem. Additionally, attendees will be able to see various smart home scenarios where products such as Family Hub 2.0 are integrated with IoT standard technology.

Also, a Game Zone within the Exhibition Zone will offer even more fun, allowing attendees to take part in a Gear Maze escape game using a Gear S3.

In addition, a 1:1 Tutorial Zone that enables developers to instantly develop smart TV applications and run them on the TV with the help of experts is also available for developers to experience the benefits of using the Tizen .NET development environment.

For more information, please visit the official conference website: www.tizenconference.com.

Samsung Electronics introduced an expanded Tizen platform for Smart TVs at the fifth annual Tizen Developer Conference (TDC) today in San Francisco at the Hilton Union Square. Samsung executives will discuss the new business opportunities that have been created as a result of its Smart TV platform and share case studies of businesses that have helped develop the Tizen ecosystem at the two-day event.

The event, which boasts the theme “Ready to Connect! Get Involved!” is set to feature keynote presentations from industry leaders, technical discussions and tech showcases for app developers, platform designers, hardware manufacturers as well as hardware and software vendors.

“Leveraging the conference, we remain focused on working with our partners and developers to encourage expansion on the Tizen platform,” said Hyogun Lee, Executive Vice President at Samsung Electronics. “By developing a system that delivers value and new experiences to Smart TV users, we will continue to build a more solid Tizen ecosystem.”

As part of its efforts to encourage increased participation in the development of the Tizen platform, Samsung will discuss the policies that have been made in collaboration with partners and developers for Voice Touch, Samsung Checkout, Sports/Music services and the security solutions for its 2017 Smart TV lineup.

The benefit of using the latest Tizen 3.0 Platform is the software, which provides new functionality thanks to an updated graphics engine and Wayland computer protocol. These deliver enhanced graphics, improved stability and an improved user interface, creating a more desirable Smart TV user experience.

Voice Touch, one of the new Smart TV ‘touch’ capabilities, provides owners a more intuitive way to use the voice recognition function. When users speak just into the remote only the title on the TV Apps screen, the icon is activated without navigation or any other process. Samsung Checkout is a pre-installed payment system on Samsung Smart TVs that allows users to conveniently make payments for digital content.

Samsung Smart TVs also provide consumers with access to sports and music services, ensuring they don’t miss their favorite live broadcasts. Through the music service feature, consumers can easily access details about the music played on their favorite TV shows, so that they can enjoy it whenever they want. Under partnership with Glympse, the location sharing service for families will be also available on Tizen-running devices such as Gear S3. A range of sync scenarios for Tizen platforms will be also presented at the event.

Samsung Smart TVs provide a three stages of security solution from the platform and application to the hardware that protect the TV’s system against external attacks, while also offering a security API to Tizen developers, making it safe to develop a range of services, from content to payment and workplace, which are all subject to strict security requirements.

By the end of 2017, Samsung plans to make Tizen.NET (http://developer.tizen.org) a public network for Tizen developers who can now try a preview version of Tizen Smart TV SDK on the site. Since announcing its collaboration with Microsoft on .NET open-source projects such as .NET Core and Xamarin.Forms last November, Samsung has steadily released preview versions of the Tizen.NET SDK to help developers build more powerful apps. This allows them to practice on it and encourage them to participate in its ongoing development.

For more information on Samsung’s Tizen Smart TV platform, please visit http://developer.samsung.com/tv.

Samsung Electronics today announced new and advanced SAMSUNG ARTIK Smart IoT platform products that will help companies get to market faster with more secure offerings and services, improve return on investment, and bring IoT another step closer to Samsung’s vision of intelligent things.

The advanced SAMSUNG ARTIK platform includes new end-to-end enterprise-grade security enhancements, and now enables easy-to-use, secure services for device onboarding, device and user management, edge node management, and secure OTA updates. Samsung is also introducing the new SAMSUNG ARTIK 053 module that will equip a new class of connected products with cutting-edge capabilities, and SAMSUNG ARTIK QuickStart, a design and development support program that will help customers and partners jumpstart their IoT businesses by making it easier and faster for companies to deliver secure IoT solutions that impact the lives of people across the globe.

The SAMSUNG ARTIK Smart IoT platform makes it easier for businesses to securely activate, monitor, track, and add new functionality to products after deployment.  Together, with advanced SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud connectors and device orchestration and management tools, these new services will greatly increase the capabilities of connected products, promote secure interoperability, and elevate the value of customer solutions that depend on the interoperability of things.

“We believe security and interoperability are critical to enabling next-generation IoT products that can connect to, and work with, many different devices and services,” said James Stansberry, Senior Vice President and U.S. Head of ARTIK at Samsung Electronics. “A smart, powerful IoT platform is key to fostering an interoperable, and most importantly, secure ecosystem. That is why we developed the SAMSUNG ARTIK Smart IoT platform from the ground up with end-to-end security, and why we continue to integrate new security enhancements across hardware, software, cloud and communications.”

“Leveraging SAMSUNG ARTIK is a value add for our customers,” said Youngsoo Do, Senior Vice President of Digital Control Group at Samsung Electronics. “SAMSUNG ARTIK is instrumental to Samsung in building secure IoT products, and getting to market faster. The ability to connect to other smart devices also enables new use cases, and is helping us realize our vision of making all Samsung products IoT-enabled.”

New capabilities and partners added to the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform include:

ARTIK 053 Module

The production-ready SAMSUNG ARTIK 053 module is an affordable IoT solution with high-performance and hardened security for next-generation edge products like connected home appliances, building products, health care devices, and industrial automation. The new SAMSUNG ARTIK 053 module can dramatically reduce development time with integrated real-time processing via a 320MHz ARM® Cortex® R4 core, 1.4MB RAM and 8MB Flash, software and a pre-certified Wi-Fi radio. The currently available SAMSUNG ARTIK family of IoT modules include pre-loaded access to the SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud platform secure services, and include software for faster and simpler development of new connected enterprise, industrial and consumer applications.

New Services and Platform Enhancements

The SAMSUNG ARTIK platform provides new, fully integrated end-to-end security enhancements across hardware, software and communications to make it easier for companies to deliver more secure connected IoT products and solutions.

New offerings in the SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud platform include fast device onboarding, edge node management, secure over the air (OTA) updates, integration with Amazon AWS Kinesis Stream, new cloud connectors including Google Assistant on Google Home and Amazon Alexa Smart Home Skill.

SAMSUNG ARTIK QuickStart Program

The new SAMSUNG ARTIK QuickStart program offers a wide-range of services that can cover the entire product design and development spectrum, including UX, UI, software, firmware, cloud, mobile app, end-to-end integration, and development, and elevate the user experience to support commercialization and IoT opportunities. It is accomplished through custom integration of the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform, on-site workshops, and training to suit the needs of customers and partners. It allows customers to start building solutions quickly and cost-effectively by significantly reducing the engineering time, effort and expertise needed to build IoT products.

Samsung Expands IoT Partnerships

Samsung and VMware today announced that VMware has joined the Samsung ARTIK Partner Program. The companies will work together to accelerate the development, deployment, and management of IoT solutions for enterprises.  Integration between the Little IoT Agent (Liota), a vendor-neutral open source software development kit (SDK) developed by VMware, and the Samsung ARTIK 530 module is being demonstrated in the Samsung booth at IoT World 2017. Also being demonstrated is the newly announced VMware Pulse IoT Center, a unified control panel that provides accurate and real-time visibility into the health of devices and can act on anomalies.  Samsung’s growing list of global technology and distribution partners will enable accelerated development and help deliver compelling new IoT solutions to their customers.

Additionally, to reach a wider audience and help speed up IoT development and time to market, Samsung reached a global distribution agreement with Mouser Electronics to distribute the SAMSUNG ARTIK family of modules, development kits and accessories.

The new SAMSUNG ARTIK 053 module is available for order today through worldwide distribution partners, including Arrow Electronics, Inc., Digi-Key, Mouser Electronics, Inc., and Mujin. You can find more information about the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform and development tools at http://artik.io and http://artik.cloud

Both Samsung and its partners’ solutions will be on exhibit at booth #210 at Internet of Things World 2017 at the Santa Clara Convention Center from May 16 – 18.

Also, the new SAMSUNG ARTIK 053 module will be showcased at TDC 2017 at the Hilton Union Square Hotel in San Francisco from May 16 – 17.