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Miniweb's Woomi Now Live on Samsung Devices in U.K., Coming Soon to U.S.
An item from late last week missed my radar: Woomi, the cloud-based content services platform for connected devices from Miniweb, officially went live on Samsung connected TVs and devices in the U.K. I wrote about Woomi
last October and was impressed with how its approach skirted the "browser vs. no browser" choice most connected devices are making, instead focusing on bringing content in via their app. I caught up with Miniweb's CEO Jerome de Vitry yesterday to learn more about the U.K. launch and upcoming plans.
Jerome said that Samsung believes it has around 500K connected devices deployed in the U.K. with the majority of them March, 2010 or later vintage, capable of handling the Woomi service. Of these, Samsung estimates about half of them have been connected (remarkably, a lot of people who buy connected devices don't actually connect them; go figure). Though it's very early on, Jerome said that about 5K people have already accessed the Woomi app, which is featured on the home Internet@TV screen, alongside Netflix, Pandora, Amazon VOD, etc.
Categories: Devices
Topics: Miniweb, Samsung, Woomi
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With Woomi, Miniweb Looks To End Debate About Browsers In Connected Devices
Back in August, in "For Connected Devices - To Browse or Not To Browse, That is the Question," I described a split in the product approaches among connected devices makers - whether to include a browser or not. Including a browser means that the whole Internet is theoretically accessible, just likegoing online. This is the approach of devices like Google TV and boxee. Not including a browser is everyone else's approach (e.g. gaming consoles, connected TVs and Blu-ray players, Apple TV, Roku, etc.). With no browser in place, consumers only get access to the content the device maker has integrated such as Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, etc. To partially open up, some like Roku have begun offering an API to content providers.
But now U.K.-based Miniweb (a spin-off of BSkyB) is looking to render moot the browser debate by offering a clever new cloud-based services platform called "Woomi" which gives content providers an on-ramp to widespread availability on connected devices even when no browser is available. Speaking with Miniweb's CEO Jerome de Vitry and its founder/chief architect Ian Valentine recently, I was impressed with how well the company understands the problem it's trying to solve and the technical approach it's using to do so.
Categories: Devices
Topics: Miniweb, Samsung, Woomi
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