Samsung upgrades apps hub

Samsung Electronics has launched its new application hub--‘Samsung Galaxy Apps’, which offers 500 handpicked curated apps for South Asia customers.

The company has partnered with Idea Cellular, Zomato to offer the apps, 300 of which will be India-centric apps and 200 global apps.

Tarun Malik, director of Media Solutions Center-South West Asia, Samsung Electronics, said “By introducing an assorted selection of best apps across key consumer interest categories like e-commerce, travel, food, media, utility services, etc, Samsung has simplified the consumer experience and enhanced discoverability of relevant apps. Samsung Galaxy Appstore will increase app adoption momentum in India by offering flexibility of payment through mobiles, developer partnerships and focus on marquee apps.”

The new app store features would allow greater customization of mobile devices, and will also function as a platform to offer various promotions and discounts. Samsung Galaxy Apps will be preloaded across all Samsung android devices with an intuitive user interface comprised of three sections--Best Picks, Top, and For Galaxy.

Best Picks allows users to easily find recommended apps and promotions, while Top showcases the most popular apps which can be viewed according to their popularity, date, and price.

Samsung Galaxy Apps will encourage adoption of the marquee apps through various promotional campaigns and recommendations. In addition, Samsung has reduced the certification time for uploading an application on the Galaxy App store by three and half days allowing developers and partners to introduce their apps quickly in the market.

The prominent categories in the Samsung App Store are games, utility services, tools, entertainment, social and communication, music and video, personalization, productivity, photography, education, e-Book and lifestyle.

Vikram Chandra, Group CEO, NDTV, said, "We are very excited to partner with Samsung on the Galaxy app store. NDTV has been at the forefront of innovation on apps and it is a great option for us to distribute our compelling content experience to Samsung users.”

Sashi Shankar, chief marketing officer, Idea Cellular, said: "Idea is happy to partner with Samsung to provide easy payment gateway for content download from the Galaxy Appstore, for our users. We believe that such initiatives will further evolve the ecosystem for enabling fast paced mobile internet penetration in India."

Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO of Zomato, said: "It gives us great pleasure to create a customised Zomato experience for the brand new Samsung Apps Store. The app ecosystem is a crowded one, leaving users confused many a times. There is merit in building a curated app store that brings the best of the lot to users, that too with a differentiated experience."

Samsung Galaxy Apps will eventually be available to over 130 mn users across 161 countries around the world.