Samsung has showed new foldable form factors for mobile phones at its developers conference in San Jose, California. The company also previewed an upgrade of its One UI and announced new tools for developers working with its digital assistant Bixby, smart home platform SmartThings and smart TV OS Tizen.
The company's first foldable device, the Galaxy Fold, was previewed at last year's developers conference. Despite the technical problems and delays with its first foldable smartphone, Samsung said it plans to continue to explore new designs. The company showed a clamshell type design for a foldable phone as well as a smartphone that opens up like a book with a foldable screen.
The update of its user interface, One UI 2, will also take account of the new functionalities possible with foldable devices. In addition, One UI 2 includes new features that "declutter" the user interface, Samsung said, making it easier for people to interact naturally, while also making it easier on their eyes. One UI will also roll out to tablets and wearables.
SmartThings hub integration
In the IoT market, Samsung announced that its SmartThings platform is powering more than 45 million monthly active users and thousands of compatible devices. This is set to expand with the Work as a SmartThings Hub (WASH) programme, which allows partners like network operators to embed SmartThings Hub software into their devices.
To help developers integrate existing devices with the SmartThings platform, Samsung announced the new Rules API to develop daily routines for smart home devices. The SmartThings Device SDK Beta programme will launch in early 2020 to enable more third-party manufacturers to create SmartThings-compatible devices.
Bixby on more devices in 2020
For the AI digital assistant Bixby, Samsung said it plans to bring the software to more devices in 2020. After launching the Bixby Marketplace earlier this year, the size of the Bixby developer community has doubled in the past six months, the company said.
To make it easier for developers to create new experiences with Bixby, Samsung announced enhanced capabilities in the Bixby Developer Studio. New Bixby Templates will make it easier for developers to create capsules using pre-existing forms so that they don’t have to start from scratch; enhanced Bixby Views enable developers to build capsules with a consistent design even beyond smartphones—to televisions, tablets, smart watches and refrigerators; and developers can now register their capsules under Natural Language Categories, such as radio, news or navigation.
Tizen for third-party TV makers
Samsung also addressed developers working on its smart TVs, with new tools for the Tizen OS. The operating system will be opened up to third-party TV makers as well, the company said. Nearly 100 million smart TVs powered by Tizen are already on the market.
