Samsung Announces TouchWiz SDK, But Will it Succeed?

Samsung today announced the Samsung Mobile Widget SDK. The kit will allow developers to create application widgets for Samsung’s TouchWiz enabled phones. But will the launch be more successful than Sony Ericsson’s failed attempt to create a similar environment for its XPERIA phone? We think so. There are a range of devices on the market today with TouchWiz, like the Samsung Behold, Memoir, Omnia, Verizon Wireless’ upcoming Omnia II smart phone. With an expanse across platforms and a 19.3 global share in cell phones sales, that means that developers can create widgets for millions of devices, whether it’s a smart phone running Windows Mobile (Omnia and Omnia II) or a feature phone like the Behold or Memoir, and not just a single device as was the case with Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA SDK. But Samsung will need to continue pumping out smart phones on a worldwide scale, as it did with the Omnia II, Omnia Lite, and Omnia Pro this year.  In Q22009 smart phone sales grew 27 percent while cell phones sales saw a 6 percent decline, according to Gartner, and Samsung falls still behind Nokia, Research in Motion, Apple, HTC, and Fujitsu on the world wide smart phone market share scale. The SDK is built upon the open-source Eclipse platform, and developers will have access to sell their apps in Samsung’s Widget Gallery and Application Store. Samsung has not yet announced what its profit sharing plan is for developers, or when the Application Store and Widget Gallery will be open for business, but it could help Omnia II sales if it’s around that phone’s launch date.