Samsung has made another move towards strengthening their Internet of Things system as home monitoring software company Perch announced that it has been acquired by the South Korean OEM. They will be working with Samsung to “develop next-generation IoT products”. The bad news is that this will affect the current consumers who have been using the Perch beta app for their home monitoring purposes as the company also announced they will be removing it from the Google Play Store.
Perch first came to our attention since it allows homeowners to have a home monitoring system and not spend a fortune. You were able to repurpose your old, practically useless smartphones into security cameras through their app. But now that they have been acquired by Samsung, they will be removing the beta app from the Google Play Store and after February 17, they will no longer provide support for the app. Furthermore, all recorded data will be deleted as well, for security and privacy purposes.
This is actually a kind of full circle moment for for Perch, since they actually came out of the Samsung Next (formerly Samsung accelerator program) so this acquisition is like a homecoming for them. The idea of turning your old gadgets into home monitoring cameras was pretty brilliant, and is probably what attracted Samsung to them again.
What isn’t clear right now is what role Perch will be playing in Samsung’s existing IoT system. They will probably be looking at the Perch software integration, but there are no details for now. If you’re a current Perch user who has some questions about the transition, you can email them at support@getperch.com.
SOURCE: Perch
