Samsung Kicks Off Its First Developers Conference As It Seeks An Edge In Software

Samsung may be the world's biggest device maker, but it knows that future growth depends on keeping customers loyal through unique software services. On Monday the company behind the booming Galaxy range of smartphones, phablets, and a critically-panned smart watch, launched its first developers conference in downtown San Francisco. More than 1,300 attendees, many of them software engineers, crammed into the St. Francis Westin Hotel to thumping electronic music and heavy blue lighting, eager to gauge how much of their time and money should go into optimizing their apps for Samsung devices. The company's pitch is that with more of its future gadgets becoming connected to one another, future apps will need to optimize for the Samsung platform.