CES: Smart TV Alliance To Launch App Portal

Complete Coverage: CES 2014

The Smart TV Alliance is planning to set up a Common Developer Portal on May 1, 2014 that it hopes will simplify the process of publishing apps for smart TVs.

The new portal will include a joint application developers agreement and a premium developer support program, which will reduce the need to negotiate a separate developer contract for each individual manufacturer before they publish content.

“The new Common Developer Portal shows Smart TV Alliance apps are market ready for manufacturers, solution providers and consumers on a variety of televisions and devices,” said Seijiro Yasuki, president of Smart TV Alliance and CTO of digital products & services company, Toshiba in a statement. “It encourages a vibrant smart TV ecosystem and removes the barriers to application development while enhancing the smart TV experience for consumers.”

The Smart TV Alliance hopes to simplify the process of creating apps for smart TVs, by creating a “build once, run everywhere” ecosystem and as part of that effort has also launched a new SDK for enhanced tools, the group says.

The SDK 3.0 includes updated HTML5 and CSS features, the new device capability API and such optional features as numeric keys, color keys and multi-audio.