Samsung at one point planned to bundle the tablet with 2015 smart TVs, and aimed to launch the product at CES in Las Vegas this past January. However, the work on PX hit a number of roadblocks along the way. Samsung kept the team in a separate office in New York, shielding them from other divisions within the company and even keeping some of the developers working on Samsung’s smart TVs in the dark about the nature of the project. Some of this growth was fueled by smaller acquisitions, which included the online video startup. Samsung acquired Boxee’s assets and team two years ago after the startup had run out of money. The PX team initially got significant resources from Samsung, and was able to grow its headcount from around 40 to close to 100 employees, according to a source. PX was being built by the team behind Boxee, the startup best known for the Boxee Box media streaming device. “It was a very bold initiative,” said one source with knowledge of the project. The plan was to not only replace the traditional remote control, but also reinvent how consumers discover and watch content with smart TVs. The company planned to include the tablet with all of its higher-end TVs in the U.S. Samsung was also looking to partner with a number of streaming services, and even pay-TV service operators, to include their apps and content on the tablet.
Something that wasn’t running dozens of other apps, but be custom-built as a next-generation remote control. The difference was that Samsung wanted to build a communal device that wouldn’t be controlled by just one family member, but reside on the coffee table. In a way, it was similar to Google’s Chromecast streaming stick, which lets users launch videos from their mobile devices.
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