App Developers Will Find it a Little Easier to Submit Apps for Smart TVs

We reported in September that the Smart TV Alliance was creating a single app developer submission process to launch apps across a number of Smart TV formats as well as releasing a new SDK 2.5 that will facilitate multi-screen app development.

The companies behind the Alliance, led by LG Electronics, TP Vision and Toshiba, realize that the battle for developers is keen. And this week the Alliance has announced that it will offer a Common Developer Portal on May 1, 2014, that includes a Joint Application Developers Agreement and a Premium Developer Support Program.

The new universal agreement will negate the need for developers to negotiate a separate developer contract for each individual Alliance manufacturer in order to publish content.

The new SDK 3.0 will provide app developers with emulation and app validation for Smart TV Alliance specification v3.0, including updated HTML5 and CSS features, the new device capability API and, based on developer feedback, optional features such as numeric keys, color keys and multi-audio.

The SDK is backwards compatible and Smart TV Alliance specification v2.0 and v2.5 are selectable for application emulation and validation. Developers will find the SDK and additional developer resources, including the latest application development guidelines, on the new portal which offers step-by-step assistance for Smart TV Alliance app development. 

The Smart TV Alliance Smart Home specification is based on open standards, including WebSocket, JSON, HTML5, and JavaScript, to ensure compatibility with the greatest number of smart home devices worldwide. With smart home features, applications running on a Smart TV Alliance platform can control and interact with connected devices at home to optimize the consumer’s smart TV experience.