A leading player in the Internet of Things space, SmartThings is now part of Samsung's Open Innovation Center(OIC) after its recent acquisition by Samsung. SmartThings, owned by Physical Graph corporation, is an open platform for the IoT. SmartThings provides a centralized control of all connected devices and machines within a physical environment via cloud hosted applications accessible on mobile devices, enabling the realization of the 'smart home' concept and other smart environments. By becoming part of the OIC, which enables Samsung to work with technology startups and entrepreneurs through investments, acquisitions, partnerships and the Samsung Accelerator, SmartThings will be able to leverage the global reach that Samsung brings and drive its own goals in the IoT space.
According to SmartThings, the move by Samsung will enable it to expand the ecosystem of developers - by including more devices and more cloud based applications to its platform. In a recent blogpost on its website, SmartThing's CEO Alex Hawkinson said that SmartThings will continue working on bringing together more third-party developers, device makers, and consumers onto its platform and will enhance its tools and programs to better meet the demand in the IoT space.
SmartThings which will now relocate to its new headquarters in Palo Alto, California will continue to operate independently within the OIC under Alex's leadership.
“We believe that there is an enormous opportunity to leverage Samsung’s global scale to help us realize our long-term vision. While we will remain operationally independent, joining forces with Samsung will enable us to support all of the leading smartphone vendors, devices, and applications; expand our base of developers and enhance the tools and programs that they rely on; and help many more people around the world easily control and monitor their homes using SmartThings."
- Alex Hawkinson, Founder and CEO, SmartThings(via a recent Blog Post at www.smartthings.com)
