Tizen and Samsung come together on a new smartphone

When you think about Samsung smartphones you usually expect Android to be inside powering them. Now, Samsung is taking what appears to be a "side road" when it comes to their mobile operating systems. They now have a prototype smartphone out with Tizen inside. If you remember that Nokia was doing well with their own Symbian project, then fell into troubled waters when they took on the Microsoft platform, perhaps you can see where Samsung is going with Tizen.

With the way Samsung has taken over the smartphone world with their work, this new path they are taking should attract some attention. It appears the Android platform they have been using was not quite as "open source" as they liked. In fact, with Oracle taking Google to court over illegally copying parts of Java for Android, it looks like Samsung is taking a new look at their options. Tizen is one and this smartphone, the as-yet unnamed handset is now circulating on the web. The first smartphones are being handed out to developers, not shown to carriers. The handsets are running ARM processors, which Samsung has lots of experience with. They make ARM processors not only for themselves, but for Apple as well.

The Samsung Tizen smartphone is supportive of a large amount of services. Google, AOL, Twitter, Facebook, Picasa, Youtube and others are supported, making this device a very social tool. The base of the Tizen mobile operating system is the Linux open source platform. The arrangement is a development of the former, Bada and Meego mobile operating systems. If you remember, Meego made it onto one Nokia device, the N9 last year. It was a great handset, then Nokia changed over to Windows. The final step in the Samsung development is going to be a high end device that can compete with the Apple iPhone.

The Samsung Tizen handset is going to handle NFC out of the box, meaning it will be able to handle contactless payments. Android started that back with their 2.3 version, but never got very far with it because of security issues. A graphics gallery is connected to the GPS system to show where the photos have been taken on a map. Music applications are also included. The HTML5 browser performs exceptionally well so web browsing will be a pleasure with the high definition 1024 by 720 screen. Scrolling is smooth without any digitizing problems. Youtube videos play quickly on the Samsung Tizen handset without the nagging wait for the loading of the page.

All in all, this smartphone is a wake up call for those who are Android lovers. The good news is that since both Tizen and Android are based on the same Linux base, the Android apps will move over to the Tizen smartphones without a problem. There are also companies like "Open Mobile" that have done work to make Android apps work on these Tizen smartphones without losing performance. It will also allow all the work that was done in the Google Android market to remain valuable. There is no news when this Samsung Tizen smartphone will be on the market, but there is talk that a Samsung Galaxy SIII could be displaying Tizen as its mobile operating system soon.