Samsung announces progress with SmartThings for Windows Phone
Windows Phone has its fans, but they sometimes, perhaps most times, feel left out of things. That includes the latest fad, the Internet of Things. Controlling devices in your home can be easily done without moving off the couch, but, for the most part, you better have an Android or iOS device at hand.
Samsung is hoping to open this world up to more people. The company makes a line of devices it calls SmartThings and the platform is compatible with some devices made by other manufacturers. It hopes to soon update its app on the Microsoft platform (yes, it has one) in an effort to please everyone and, perhaps, get a few more customers.
This is really just catching up, as the Android and iOS apps have already been updated to version 2.1.0, so Samsung is merely reassuring its Windows Phone fans that they haven't been forgotten.
Don't get too excited, though. The company claims "Instead of doing a large app interface overhaul like we did with iOS and Android, we’ll be releasing individual features over time. The size of each app development team is proportional to the number of SmartThings customers on that platform, so our Windows Mobile team is smaller (though no less dedicated!) than our iOS and Android teams. We plan to do these version releases approximately once a month with a primary focus on stability and bug fixes, but which will frequently be accompanied by updates to features, functionality, and design".
A new "Rooms" capability should roll out to users in the next few days. The rest Samsung plans for "down the road", a vague sort-of timelime. Meantime it has more in mind for the other two major mobile platforms.
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