about 12 years ago
From WeDraw to the MOVL Connect Platform: What we've been up to this year
By Juan Pablo Gnecco, Founder and CEO of MOVL
Exactly one year ago, Alan, Daniel, and I went out to the heart of Silicon Valley to see exactly what Samsung was up to in the Smart TV world. We had a blast, and it didn’t take much to realize we were at the start of something great. Along with an opportunity to get trained on the SDK, it was a great networking event for us. We were lucky enough to talk tech and get advice from Pandora founder Tim Westergren, as well as Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder. Truly, it was an amazing experience. Later that night, we went out for dinner and could not stop throwing around ideas about how we could create great experiences for Smart TVs. During that dinner, MOVL was born. Alan and I outlined our vision on a restaurant napkin and cheered the start of an exciting new venture.
We never could have imagined we would be where we are today. After we won the 2010 Free the TV Challenge with WeDraw, Samsung invited us out to Las Vegas, where we had the opportunity to showcase WeDraw to everyone at CES. We won the grand prize, and MOVL now had some seed money to grow — and to drive around Vegas in limos. More important, we established a close partnership with Samsung that has led to great opportunities for the both of us, and we could not be more excited about the 2011 Free the TV Challenge.
The Samsung SDK just keeps getting better and better, and we feel that by combining the SDK with our MOVL Connect Platform, developers are going to have everything they need to seamlessly create converged apps. We see a future where anyone can reach into his or her pocket, take out a smartphone, and start interacting with nearby screens. It’s exciting stuff that we are working on. With our platform, we are making it easy for developers to focus on the content and quality of their apps. No need to worry about the connection between the TV and your devices — we handle that. We have even incorporated a way for you to make money through advertising and MOVL SmartAds. When we set out to create our platform, one of the things we wanted to focus on was making it easy for developers to use our technology to transform their current games or apps into a multi-screen, multi-user, multi-platform experience.
On connect.movl.com, we have sample code, tutorials, forums, and, most important, the APIs you need to get started. We plan on updating content and enhancing our platform over time with features that improve the quality of your apps. The possibilities are endless. With our platform, you can make multi-screen, multi-user, multi-device applications for businesses, retail spaces, outdoor advertising, marketing, entertainment, education, stadiums, bars and restaurants, social interaction, live TV, and so much more.
We think Samsung is a leader in this space and this is a great opportunity for developers to take advantage of the tools provided to create awesome apps. We saw it with smartphones, and it’s here with TVs now. Can’t wait to see your apps in a few months! Take your idea and run with it — go all out!