三星欲得敲門磚 借收購進軍智能家居市場

Samsung Electronics is following Google and Apple into the smart home with the acquisition of SmartThings, which allows a variety of internet-connected devices to be controlled by a single mobile app.

繼谷歌(Google)和蘋果(Apple)之後，三星電子(Samsung Electronics)也通過收購美國公司SmartThings打入智能家居領域。SmartThings能讓用戶通過一個移動應用來控制各種聯網設備。

Samsung, which showed off a range of its own “Smart Home” appliances at January’s Consumer Electronics Show, said SmartThings would continue to operate independently but move to Silicon Valley as part of the South Korean company’s Open Innovation Centre.

在今年1月的消費電子展(Consumer Electronics Show)上，三星曾展示過一系列自己的“智能家居(Smart Home)”電器。它表示，SmartThings將繼續獨立運營，不過會搬到硅谷，成爲三星開放創新中心(Open Innovation Centre)的一部分。

Washington DC-based SmartThings raised $15.5m in venture funding after receiving $1.2m from a Kickstarter campaign in September 2012.

SmartThings目前總部位於華盛頓特區。2012年9月，該公司先是在一次Kickstarter衆籌活動中獲得了120萬美元，接着又籌集了1550萬美元風險投資。

Samsung’s acquisition of the three-year-old start-up, for a reported $200m, represents another bid by a leading technology company to persuade more consumers that the benefits in convenience or energy-saving of wiring up their homes to the internet outweigh the security risks and additional complexities.

據報道，三星以2億美元的價格，收購了這家只有3年曆史的初創企業。和其他已涉足智能家居領域的高科技企業一樣，三星希望說服消費者，將家居設備聯網在便利性和節能方面的好處，超過了這麼做的安全風險及額外的複雜性。

It follows Google’s purchases of Nest, a maker of online thermostats and smoke detectors, and Dropcam, an internet-connected security camera developer, earlier this year. In June, Apple laid the foundation for its own move into the “internet of things” with HomeKit, a way to control heating, door locks or lights with an iPhone.

今年早些時候，谷歌收購了Nest和Dropcam，前者生產能聯網的溫控裝置及煙霧警報器，後者則是一家聯網安保攝像頭的開發商。今年6月，蘋果也爲自己向“物聯網”的進軍打響了第一槍。當時，該公司推出了HomeKit應用，用戶可以在iPhone上使用這款應用，控制暖氣、門鎖或電燈。

While Apple has allowed only a select few device makers to work with HomeKit so far and Nest has slowly opened up its developer platform in recent months, Samsung and SmartThings touted their “open platform for the smart home”, which now supports more than 1,000 products and thousands of mobile apps.

到目前爲止，蘋果只選取了少量設備製造商圍繞HomeKit開展合作。而Nest則在最近幾個月才緩慢開放了其開發者平臺。相比之下，三星和SmartThings則在大力推銷它們的“智能家居開放平臺”，這一平臺目前已支持逾千種產品和數千個應用。

David Eun, head of Samsung’s Open Innovation Centre, said that more investments, acquisitions and partnerships around the internet of things were planned.

三星開放創新中心主管戴維•尤恩(David Eun)表示，三星還計劃圍繞物聯網開展更多投資、併購及合作。

Samsung’s own Smart Home family of products only worked with its own appliances, such as fridges and washing machines. SmartThings will continue to work with other companies’ products, including those from rivals Google and Apple, after the acquisition, while benefiting from Samsung’s reach and distribution.

三星自己的智能家居產品只支持三星的電器，比如電冰箱和洗衣機。而SmartThings則會在併購之後，在享受三星市場影響範圍及分銷網絡的同時，繼續兼容其他公司的產品，包括那些來自三星對手谷歌和蘋果的產品。