As blogged by us few months ago, smart companies like Samsung keep on experimenting with new technologies and OS, and would not take the risk of keeping all their eggs in one basket. True to this philosophy, Samsung has officially announced a new operating system that will rival Android at the ongoing MWC. The new OS, named Tizen, is based on the Linux operating system similar to Android, and will also compete against iOS, Windows Phone, BB 10, Firefox OS and Ubuntu Mobile. Tizen phones will look and work much like Android phones, except that the familiar square app icons are round.
The impetus behind Tizen comes from cellphone carriers like NTT Docomo , Orange and Sprint ,which want a successful counterweight to the clout of Google and Apple. NTT Docomo and Orange announced plans to “commercialise Tizen devices in the second half of 2013”, while Samsung has confirmed that it plans to offer smartphones powered by the Tizen OS this year. Sprint is also a member of the Tizen Association, but it hasn’t said if it has any plans to bring Tizen handsets to the U.S. Other major companies for this association include Intel and Huawei.
Noting that 250 partners and ecosystem players had gathered in Barcelona, the Tizen Association also said that executives from NTT Docomo, Orange and Samsung, as well as Huawei and Intel, had highlighted “the value of an open ecosystem”, and the importance of “customer choice and delivering valuable services to consumers”.
Earlier this month, the Tizen 2.0 Magnolia SDK and source code was released to developers, operators and OEMs. This was said to “represent a major milestone”, and include “many new features and improvements over previous versions”.
And as part of the Tizen Association’s focus on the ecosystem, it said that a Tizen Store will launch later this year with thousands of apps, “allowing developers to monetise their work and creating a robust ecosystem”.
“We are very excited about the new experience and openness of Tizen that will be brought to consumers this year. We will remain committed to open source based innovation and open to collaboration with the broader industry participants,” said Hankil Yoon, SVP at Samsung, and co-vice chairman of the Tizen Association.
This could be an alarming news for Google as Samsung is the world leader, which is using Android ecosystem and this development would encourage Samsung and Google to give a re-look to their deal. These are early days, but the way technology takes shape so quickly, everything is possible in mobility business.
