Samsung has Big Plans for the Tizen Platform – New Tizen Handsets to Land in Q1 2014

Some of you might not be aware of this, but recently the Tizen Developer Summit has been held in Korea. In case you're not familiar with it, Tizen is basically an open-source Linux- based operating system / platform for smartphones, tablets and more. The project is part of the Linux Foundation but it's being governed by the conjoined efforts of Samsung and Intel.

In any case, the big news today is that, during the Tizen Development Summit, Samsung has been present and has revealed some pretty interesting aspects regarding its future plans.

To begin with, Samsung intends on implementing Tizen on more home appliances and other consumer electronics, such as refrigerators and TVs. More so, Samsung and Intel have started a collaboration with automotive companies such as Jaguar, Land Rover and Toyota, in order to implement Tizen-powered infotainment systems in vehicles.

More importantly for us smartphone enthusiasts, is that Samsung is now planning on releasing multiple Tizen-powered smartphones in 2014. The first batch of Tizen handsets is expected to hit the market sometime in the first quarter of the year. These devices will run on Tizen 2.2.1, but interestingly enough, Tizen version 3 is also in the works, boasting 64-bit architecture support, multi-user support and better graphics. Tizen 3 is expected to go live in the 3rd quarter of 2014, and at that time we could also see a wide range of new Samsung flagship handsets hitting the market, boasting the new platform under the hood.

In other words, Samsung might plan on detaching itself from the Android and Google platform, and it might plan on becoming an independent entity, delivering its own hardware, as well as software.

In other news, even fresher reports have suggested that the very first Tizen-powered Samsung smartphone might hit the market as early as January 2014. Reports claim that NTT Docomo (the Japanese carrier that has supported Samsung and the Tizen platform for many months) is now pressuring Samsung into launching the first Tizen handset in the first month of the year, as opposed to "sometime in Q1". NTT Docomo was expecting its first Tizen smartphone to hit the shelves by the end of 2013, but since that doesn't seem to be an option, the carrier might want to try and narrow-down the time frame.

This mysterious smartphone is also supposed to go on sale in France via Orange, but only time will tell whether or not Samsung will manage to meet NTT Docomo's demands regarding the matter. The software might not be ready to go live, and Sammy might still have to work on the hardware side of things. We'll have to wait and see how the story develops.

In any case, the point is that next year, Samsung is definitely going to focus greatly on the Tizen platform. Of course, we don't expect the company to drop the Android OS from the start, but who knows?! If Tizen catches on, then Samsung will most likely invest even more in this OS.

Any thoughts?

Via: GforGames (1 / 2)
Sources: ETNews / DDaily