The FINANCIAL — Samsung Electronics America, Inc., the fastest growing appliance brand in America for the fifth straight quarter on June 20 unveiled its next generation Family Hub, a major advancement in the role and importance of the refrigerator in family life.
Building upon consumer insights and feedback over the past year, the Family Hub has new app integration and more diverse content partners to make shopping, communication, and entertainment more seamless than ever.
The Family Hub is transforming life in the kitchen and reshaping expectations toward refrigerators. Its enhanced integrated tools and technologies include innovative voice activation features, three built-in cameras that allow users to see inside the fridge from a companion smart phone app, more personalized family connection features, and new ways to enjoy music and television. Additionally, the lineup has expanded from 4 to 10 models, including traditional 3-door and new 4-door French door models, enabling consumers to choose the configuration and price that fits their family’s needs, according to Samsung.
“The kitchen has always been the center of the home, but with technology changing how families connect and communicate, home appliances are emerging as a new focus of innovation,” said John Herrington, Senior Vice President, General Manager of Home Appliances, Samsung Electronics America. “The Family Hub is a huge step forward in the modern kitchen. It empowers you to do things you never thought possible – like take the fridge with you to the grocery store, digitally display a photo of your kids’ winning goal, and enjoy your favorite entertainment right from your digital screen.”
More than a Fridge: The Future of Food, Family and Fun in the Kitchen
The popularity of Family Hub reflects significant changes in the ways families live and communicate. Multiple generations are increasingly living under one roof, adult kids are boomeranging and elderly parents are settling in – while families are using mobile technology to stay connected.
To explore the shifting dynamics around family and home, including the role that technology is playing in daily living, Samsung has partnered with Smart Kitchen Summit to bring together experts in kitchen trends, product innovation and cultural anthropology for a thoughtful panel discussion today at Samsung 837 in New York City. Called “More Than Just a Fridge: The Future of Food, Family & Fun in the Kitchen,” the discussion will explore topics such as:
Why the kitchen has become the hub of the home.
How the kitchen is growing and evolving to suit the changing needs of multi-generational families.
How technology is making family life easier and more connected in the kitchen.
“The kitchen has always been the place where family and friends gather, and it’s evolving as the nature of the family evolves,” said Michael Wolf, Creator & Curator, Smart Kitchen Summit and editor of The Spoon. “The way in which we store food, cook and interact in the kitchen is changing to reflect an increasingly digital lifestyle, and the refrigerator is an important part of that story. We are excited to partner with Samsung today to have a wide-ranging discussion on the future of the refrigerator and the kitchen overall.”
Family Hub: Transforming the Connected Family
Samsung has dialed up Family Hub’s connectivity in app integration and voice technology to make it even more interactive, personalized and functional.
Food management is more seamless and easier than ever. From your smart phone, you can look inside your Family Hub refrigerator using the View Inside cameras, build your shopping list, and place an order using Instacart app or Groceries by Mastercard. You can tap into food delivery and cooking resources like Grubhub and Nomiku, or find a delicious meal idea with the voice-enabled Allrecipes app from Meredith Digital.
Family communication has been one of the most popular aspects of the Family Hub. Significant enhancements include an easy-to-use interface that enables family members to create their own profiles using avatars or, starting in September, personal pictures. With the LED touchscreen serving as an interactive digital bulletin board, users share photos, access updated calendars, handwrite memos in real time, and post memos from wherever they may be (via a companion smartphone app2). In entertainment, app partners like TuneIn and Spotify allow you to stream music and/or videos, while users can also watch programming from their Samsung TV directly on their refrigerator.
Beginning this fall, Family Hub will feature the Samsung Connect app, which debuted on the Galaxy S8 earlier this year, giving families more control over their connected homes. Simply control and monitor Samsung smart products, including appliances, from a single app on the front of the refrigerator. You can also manage hundreds of third-party devices, like lights, door locks, security cameras, wireless speakers and much more3, when connected to the Samsung Connect Home Smart Wi-Fi system which works as a Samsung SmartThings Hub. Now Family Hub can be more than just the hub of your kitchen, it can be a hub within your smart home.
For a more convenient kitchen experience, Samsung’s advanced voice technology has also been integrated across many of Family Hub apps. Examples include voice commands to find out about the time and weather, adding products to shopping lists, ordering groceries online, managing to-do-lists and calendar schedules, having recipe directions read to you as you cook, and more.
“Live Beautiful” Brand Campaign
As a result of the tremendous feedback regarding this innovative new appliance, Samsung is supporting Family Hub with an integrated marketing campaign that launched this week. The campaign highlights the flexibility of the refrigerator to enhance life for today’s connected family. Part of the “Live Beautiful” brand campaign, the concept shows various family members interacting with the refrigerator: An aspiring astronaut adds her favorite rocket popsicle to the shopping list; the singer in the family belts out a classic “Shout” by Tears for Fears streaming on the Spotify app while yet another family member checks to see if there is milk in the fridge through the View Inside feature. All of these interactions show, in the most personal terms, how Family Hub is more than a refrigerator. It is an innovation-rich digital tool which brings families closer together. You can now see the “Live Beautiful” campaign across television, print, digital and social media.
Family Hub MSRP starts at $3,299.
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