Samsung has announced that it is no longer going to distribute paid applications through its smart TVs and connected Blu-ray platforms. The company notified users of this change through an email. It is also issuing refunds to customers who had already bought paid utilities through its smart TV platform. Samsung gave no reason as to why it felt the need to stop selling paid applications through smart TVs.
The company says that despite this change a few paid applications will continue to function even after it stops selling them. However customers who have already bought those applications will not be entitled to a refund. Only those customers will be eligible for refunds who bought applications that will be removed from the Smart Hub.
Even though Samsung hasn’t officially provided a reason for this change, its evident that the company wasn’t able to find traction with this model on its smart TVs. Therefore from now onwards it will only offer free utilities on its smart TV platform.
Samsung also pointed out to clear confusion that this change does not affect streaming services. Since this change only affects apps purchased from Samsung TV Apps Store, it won’t limit users’ access to subscription services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Redbox Instant, Pandora, Spotify and more.