Samsung confirms Tizen-based mobes to debut this year
Alternative OS to offset Android's dominance
Samsung says it is pressing ahead with plans to release mobile phones running the Linux-based Tizen OS, with more than one model due to arrive in 2013.
"We plan to release new, competitive Tizen devices within this year and will keep expanding the lineup depending on market conditions," the company told Bloomberg News in an emailed statement. It did not, however, give any information on when the new models would ship or what they might cost.
Samsung is currently the world's largest handset manufacturer with 29 per cent of the market, according to the latest figures from analytics firm IHS iSupply.
At present, most of the smartphones Samsung ships run Android, but rumors that the company has been looking for an alternative to Google's OS have been swirling ever since the Chocolate Factory acquired Motorola Mobility in May 2012.
Samsung does have its own, proprietary smartphone platform in the form of Bada, but handsets running that OS have not proven popular, save for in a few select markets.
The first hints that Samsung was looking to Tizen as a possible replacement for Android came in June 2012, when the mobile maker sunk $500,000 into the Linux Foundation, which oversees Tizen development. The move made Samsung a Platinum member of the Foundation and gave it a seat on its board of directors.
Then in September, hawk-eyed industry watchers spotted a document published by the Wi-Fi Alliance that seemed to indicate that a Tizen-based Samsung handset was imminent. No such device, however, ever made it to market.
Thursday's announcement marks the first time the South Korean company has made an official statement that it plans to release Tizen-based kit.
Just how dedicated Samsung is to the OS, however, or how strategic Tizen is to the company's future plans, remains unclear. Tizen is hardly the only new smartphone OS due to arrive in 2013, nor is it the only one based on Linux and open source code.
Just this week, Canonical announced that it was readying a version of Ubuntu Linux for smartphones. Meanwhile, the Mozilla Foundation is preparing to launch Firefox OS, a group of former Nokia engineers are readying a Linux derivative called Sailfish, and a few volunteers are even working to revive HP's webOS.
Given this abundance of options, about the only thing Tizen would seem to have going for it is its pedigree. It's backed by Intel and includes code derived from multiple earlier open source smartphone operating systems, including Maemo, Moblin, and MeeGo.
Still, none of those platforms was particularly successful, and Tizen appears to offer little that competing platforms don't. For example, its app development model is based on HTML5 and related web technologies – but whose isn't these days?
What's more, the last time anyone heard about any progress on Tizen development was in September, when the project's minders released the alpha version of the Tizen 2.0 source code. Alpha-quality code is generally poorly suited to shipping products, but nothing new has been announced since then.
The smartphone market is fast-moving, however, and Samsung may be hoping that by bringing Tizen-based handsets to market quickly it can give its alternative OS-of-choice a leg up over competing platforms.
If the rumors are true, Samsung may be planning to launch its first Tizen device in partnership with Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo later this year. ®
COMMENTS
Re: Nobody?
It makes sense for Samsung to explore alternatives - It's no use them becoming dependent on a single supplier to make sure they stay in business. Therefore it's best to have plenty of backup options available.
However they are unlikely to 'jump ship'. Android is a major reason why Samsung are the largest phone manufacturer in the world and their profits are heavily filled by their Android offering. As well as brand credibility where they are in the top echelons of phone manufacturers (if not the top) .
So they will carry on with their Android offerings for as long as people keep buying them, Google keeps developing it and they are making money out of them. However if any of these things stop then they need to be able to have a credible (and mature) OS to move towards. It might take another 10 attempts after this to get there and it might be 2050 befor eit is needed but it's no use being another Kodak or Polaroid or Microsoft who rest on their foundations and watch the world pass them by.
Nobody?
I would think that users are reasonably happy about having an alternative to iOS and cheap handsets… But of course users tend to get forgotten.
Carry on dreaming.
The only people upset about the way Android is going, are Apple and especially Microsoft (who's Windows Phone platform is still-born and hemorrhaging marketshare year on year, down from it's embarrassing 1%) ....
"about the only thing Tizen would seem to have going for it is its pedigree"
"about the only thing Tizen would seem to have going for it is its pedigree"
Seriously, WTF? How about the fact that it would actually be installed on phones from the largest phone manufacturer? Or that doesn't count as "going for it"?
Re: Mee didn't go
>And giving it the ability to run Android apps sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Why? That's exactly what I'm expecting them to do... and I imagine the vast Android app market is a huge part of the appeal. Why should there be any compatibility problems? Android != Windows! Isn't this the point of "FOSS"? Surely Samsung could even dump the entire driver & Java stack from Cyanogen into their phones - just for the Android apps - if they felt the need or if they unearthed any hidden Microsoftian "incompatibilities" or whatever?
I'm starting to think a generation of Microsoft may have seriously damaged some brains :-(
