Samsung’s IoT Vision Starts To Clear

Samsung revealed its entire Smart TV lineup for 2016 yesterday (Dec. 29) and confirmed the offerings will be equipped with Internet of Things (IoT) technology and connected to the SmartThings platform. The open platform enables users to connect all of their smart and IoT devices in one place in order to manage and control them.

“With Samsung Smart TVs working with the SmartThings technology, we have an opportunity to reach millions of households,” Alex Hawkinson, CEO and cofounder of SmartThings, said in a press release. “Applying this technology into current household devices is a major step forwards that will make it much easier for everyone to experience the benefits of a smart home.”

With the SmartThings platform, multiple smart devices can be accessed via a smartphone and Samsung’s 2016 SUHD TVs. The new technology allows the TV to act as the controller for all of the devices within a smart home, Samsung said.

Samsung isn’t the only tech giant that has big IoT plans for 2016.

Earlier this month, Adobe released data showing just how much Amazon’s bet on IoT, along with its investments in smart home and AI, will impact the next year for the eCommerce giant.

Data from Adobe found that consumers listed Amazon Echo as the “most admired” product of the digital assistants that are available on the marketplace (67 percent reported this at the top). The second most listed (45 percent) were Google Now and Siri, with Windows Cortana at 38 percent and Facebook M at 18 percent.

And when looking at the IoT market and social media mentions, Amazon Echo came in second when measuring data from July–Nov. 2015, with 70,000 mentions. That fell second only to Google OnHub, which recorded 130,000. Amazon Dash had 65,000 mentions.

Recently, Amazon announced that Echo, its voice-activated home assistant, was available at over 3,000 retail locations this holiday season. While the hands-free device has been available for several months online and at participating retailers, like Staples, this marks the online retailer’s largest in-store push to date for Echo since its launch in late 2014.