In the year since Samsung’s acquisition of HARMAN, the companies have continuously worked together to create and implement leading-edge technologies for various industries and customer bases – continuing to serve traditional markets in best-class ways, and pushing forward into uncharted territory just as confidently. In honor of the first year anniversary of Samsung’s historic acquisition of HARMAN, we’re taking a look back and reflecting on the groundbreaking technologies that resulted from our collaboration.
HARMAN and Samsung are excellent complements in terms of our technologies, products, and solutions. Joining forces was a natural extension for two companies looking to create substantial growth opportunities and deliver greater benefits for customers worldwide. A common vision, culture of innovation, constant commitment to our customers, and a combined passion to develop smart products and solutions provided the foundation for this collaboration. HARMAN provided Samsung a solid footing in the automotive industry as well as the ability to bolster their software engineering capabilities. At the same time, HARMAN received the scale, platform and complementary technologies necessary to accelerate growth and enhance our industry leadership. Our unique synergies in audio and video products, hardware and software solutions, and our automotive and mobile expertise enabled HARMAN and Samsung to solidify our roles as the industry leaders in the areas in-which leadership has decided to focus.
The nature of our partnership fosters a collaborative and creative environment. Our strong alliance integrates technologies developed on both sides of the equation in software, hardware and the cloud to become architects of experience, delivering future mobility and connected lifestyles. Over the course of this past year, HARMAN and Samsung have formed a global connected technologies powerhouse responsible for multiple incredible innovations across the automotive, audio and connected services industries. And that’s after just one year.
Much of this collaborative work was debuted at CES 2018, where HARMAN and Samsung unveiled a bevy of unique connected car solutions that showcases our joint mission to become the leader in connectivity and autonomous driving. Together we debuted DRVLINE™, an open, modular and scalable hardware and software-based platform that integrates best-in-class technology into new vehicles and builds a foundation for fleets of the future. DRVLINE™ incorporates numerous first-class components and technologies that leverage Samsung and HARMAN’s expertise in electronics, IoT and embedded systems, including in-car compute for Levels 3, 4, and 5 automation.
Partnering with Samsung to enhance technologies typically found in other industries such as television and personal computing, HARMAN aims to deliver the same type of immersive experiences consumers enjoy in their homes, within a vehicle’s cockpit. The new Digital Cockpit platform weaves together a driver’s connected lifestyle across the Internet of Things, and incorporates a multi-panel QLED/OLED display layout that provides a personalized information and entertainment-driven experience for all passengers, no matter where they’re seated within the vehicle.
Moodscape, also featuring QLED/OLED tech, is the latest experience-centric automotive audio solution that offers personalized entertainment and comfort for passengers by utilizing mood-based features. Moodscape’s Music Motivator leverages available in-car technology to deliver a superior listening experience, while the MoodRoof overhead display provides a state-of-the-art visual experience and immerses passengers into the ambient environment of their choice.
To address the increasing demand for integrated solutions for automated driving, Samsung and HARMAN announced the creation of a joint automotive Strategic Business Unit, the establishment of a $300 million Samsung Automotive Innovation fund and a series of investments and partnerships designed to promote collaboration in the automotive sector. By leveraging our combined teams and resources, we’re able to create even more value for our customers by making the driver and passenger experience safer, more convenient and enjoyable.
In the year since Samsung’s acquisition of HARMAN, both organizations have increased innovation speed through scale, resources and competencies to help automakers focus on the car’s evolution from device-centric to experience centric. Most recently, HARMAN and Samsung announced the development of the industry’s first 5G-ready automotive solution, also known as the Telematics Control Unit (TCU). 5G represents a paradigm shift in the future of mobility, and is an essential enabler for autonomous transportation. With support for Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) technology, our 5G solution will enable cars to communicate directly with external stimuli, including traffic lights, traffic management systems, and other vehicles.
HARMAN and Samsung also continue to usher in breakthroughs in IoT technology. Beginning this year, HARMAN Connected Services will build and deliver solutions on the Samsung ARTIK™ Smart IoT platform to provide secure and interoperable IoT products and services. The combination of HARMAN’s gateway solution expertise and Samsung’s ARTIK™ platform provides complete, secure, end-to-end solutions for products and value-added services for several industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, and smart cities, homes and buildings. The integration between ARTIK™ cloud services and HARMAN business solutions will enable customers to easily connect products together, manage interactions between devices and data sources, monitor devices remotely, and extend the life of products in the field with over-the-air updates.
Our devotion to deliver a future which seamlessly connects consumers and enterprises across automotive, the home, mobile and office is unstoppable. The past year has seen considerable progress and innovation across all markets, and the coming years promise even more cutting-edge developments.
