Skip to main content

Samsung plans to beef up its software by ‘buying rather than building’

Perhaps one of the better known OEMs for adding its own flavor to Android, Samsung says it has plans to beef up its software division in order to drive sales of its hardware. Kang Tae-jin, Samsung’s senior vice president of the Media Solution Center told Reuters in an interview : “The message we’re getting from the top is to raise software capability, and buy rather than build, if needed.” Assumedly, the deals would be further in-line with acquisitions like mobile cloud content service provider mSpot, a company Samsung acquired in May. Samsung used technology from mSpot to add to its Music Hub, which saw a major revamp around the same time that the Galaxy S III was announced earlier this year. Similar acquisitions look to be on the way.

The acquisitions would of course be executed by Samsung in order to better position its software in the market. Samsung adds heavily onto Android with its custom TouchWiz user interface, allowing it to compete with not only other Android OEMs, but also Apple. Like it did with mSpot, Samsung could also acquire larger companies to add to its smaller software features, and from the sounds of it, that looks like what the company is headed to do. Kang went on to say: “We want to grow the Music Hub to rank in the world’s top four services within three years in both revenue and subscriber numbers. And to shorten the time, we’re ready to do more acquisitions, if needed.” A service like Pandora, who is currently in a bit of financial trouble, sounds like a great choice. 

Samsung has seen an explosive amount of sales for its brand-new Galaxy S III and from the looks of it also has huge expectations for its Galaxy Note II.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Google — experts who break news about Google and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Google on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel