三星收购新兴公司SmartThings 进军智能家居领域-科技频道-金鱼财经网

新华网8月15日电 据美国科技博客Gizmodo转引博客站Re/Code报道，三星完成了对智能家居新兴公司SmartThings的收购，总额达2亿美元。这条消息是在最初的传言出现几乎整整一个月之后出炉的。

SmartThings最初只是Kickstarter众筹平台上的一个计划，旨在让普通人也能享受智能家居所带来的便利。当然，这个设想非常宏大，并且也绝非独此一家，不过SmartThings公司提出的模型设想格外有趣。这家公司出售的智能家居装备包括一个类似路由器的终端和若干个传感器。在将这些设备与智能手机应用进行配对之后，人们可以使用这些传感器来对哪怕是非智能的家电进行智能自动控制。

作为世界上最大的科技公司之一，三星的支持毫无疑问会给SmartThings的发展带来帮助；而反过来，拥有一家智能家居平台也能够帮助三星在这个新兴市场里加强竞争力，毕竟谷歌等对手已经捷足先登。谷歌收购了Nest公司，从而在此平台上搭建自己的智能家居操作系统；苹果最近也宣布了HomeKit系统，让iPhone可以远程操控。现在三星也完成了对SmartThings的收购，让他们也能在这个平台上有自己独特的地位。

不过，SmartThings是一个相对开放的平台，这和三星传统上的地位并不符合。这笔收购是否意味着三星在此方向上的调整尚不得而知，不过三星将如何对待这个平台值得关注。三星已经生产了一些相关的设备，这意味着我们或许很快就能看到他们的发展方向。

译者：梁爽

Samsung Wants to Control Your Smart Home, Too

Re/Code"s ever reliable Kara Swisher is reporting that Samsung just bought the smart home startup SmartThings for $200 million. The news comes almost exactly one month after a rumor emerged that the Korean electronics company was making the move. But now that it"s made, things could get interesting.

SmartThings actually started out as a Kickstarter project that promised to make it easy for anyone to turn their home into a smart home. That"s a hell of a promise and one that several companies are very interested in fulfilling. The SmartThings model is particularly interesting, though, since the company sells kits that includes a router-like hub and a number of sensors. After a little bit of tinkering with a smartphone app, you can set up all sorts of home automation features with appliances that weren"t designed to be smart. Walt Mossberg, for one, thinks the whole system is pretty dang cool. Enter Samsung.

Obviously, the support of one of the world"s largest tech companies will help SmartThings scale, but owning a smart home platform will also help Samsung compete in an emerging market that their biggest competitors already have a foothold in. Google, of course, bought Nest so that it could build an operating system for your home, while

recently announced HomeKit which would make the iPhone a remote control for your life. Now Samsung has SmartThings, a comble however altogether unique company that"s after the same thing.

On a nerdier note, SmartThings is a relatively open platform, while Samsung traditionally isn"t. Whether or not this acquisition represents a departure from the old ways of doing things at Samsung remains to be seen, but it"ll be fascinating to see where the giant corporation takes its new pet startup. The fact that Samsung already manufactures a number of connected devicesfor the home means we might see some action sooner rather than later.