When the Samsung Galaxy smartphone was first released in the middle of 2009, it marked the company’s initial step into the Android market. The Korean consumer giant has been all-in with Android ever since, and it has built a sizable developer community around the platform over the past eight years.

Further evidence for the firm’s Android focus with developers can be found this week with the news that Samsung Electronics America Inc. will release a Bixby voice assistant software development kit next year. And the company will now offer developers a Linux desktop app that can be run on Android phones.

“I firmly believe that Google never really monetized Android, and Samsung did that a lot better,” said Redg Snodgrass (pictured), co-founder and chairman of ReadWrite and ReadWrite Labs. “It seems like the sexy thing is Apple, but I’ve talked with several developers, and I know where they make their money.”

Snodgrass visited theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, and spoke with host John Furrier (@furrier) at the Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco, California. They discussed how the strategic blend of home devices with smartphone technologies offers business opportunities for developers, as well as the potential industry impact of Samsung’s product announcements this week.

Staying close to the phone

Samsung’s recent announcements are part of the company’s careful balancing act to move technology innovation across the full consumer device stack (TVs, home audio systems, smart refrigerators) while not straying too far from the smartphone.

“It’s understanding where you fit in the stack and being able to take advantage of it strategically,” Snodgrass explained. “I think Samsung is positioned really well.”

Interested in building tools for augmented reality? Google and Samsung will now partner to bring Google’s ARCore framework to Galaxy phones. Want to issue voice commands to other home devices using the same interface as your phone’s? The latest Bixby 2.0 release will let users do exactly that. By linking multiple devices with core smartphone technologies in Android, Samsung is offering business opportunities to developers at scale.

“Our biggest issue is that we’re driven by the success of the smartphone for every other piece of technology today,” Snodgrass said. “What always matters is that you’re building economies; you’re not building fun playgrounds or anything like that.”

After purchasing home technology provider SmartThings Inc. in 2014, Samsung has been committed to a connected home model. This week’s news that it will unite “internet of things” services like Connect and ARTIK into the newly named SmartThings Cloud reinforces Samsung’s home-centric approach.

“They own almost every device in your home already,” Snodgrass said. “If they put their full marketing weight behind it, this could get really interesting really fast.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Samsung Developer Conference.

Photo: SiliconANGLE