For those of you who haven’t heard what Tizen is- don’t worry, it is not your fault. Samsung’s attempt at creating a Linux based platform along with Intel’s Meego(which died a rather unfortunate death) hasn’t had the easiest of rides.
Samsung’s first Tizen smartphone was postponed indefinitely, and a later attempt, the Tizen based- Z1 had its Indian launch pushed back from 2014 to January 2015.
Wait, back up. Samsung is creating a new mobile OS, along with Intel? Whatever happened to the infallible(although uneasy) Android- Samsung partnership? Easy- Tizen is Samsung’s attempt to get revenue to flow in their direction, since majority of profits are made by Google in the current tie-up. Tizen boasts of being a joint effort of some of the biggest names in the world- the directors of Huawei, Fujitsu, NEC, Panasonic, KT, Sprint, SK Telecom, Orange, NTT Docomo and Vodafone sit on the Tizen Association’s board of directors.
Labelled as ‘The OS of everything”, Tizen will now be included in all of their smart televisions, in 2015. This will enable the new smart TVs to sync with other Tizen based Samsung devices- that include Playstation Now, Samsung Sports Live and recently launched Milk Video.
These TVs can search and locate these devices with Bluetooth and receive data and media from them over Wi-Fi Direct. Samsung believes this makes these Tvs the “Control center of any smart home.” Now, since Tizen is open source, which means developers can tinker with it to suit their functionality, Samsung has to throw its weight around to get developers interested in it in the first place. The OS is already being used in smartphones like Samsung Z, Galaxy Gear and Samsung Gear S smartwatches.
A threat to Android? Too soon to tell, although if Samsung plays its cards right, it might give Android a run for its money, although if current news and reviews are to be believed, that seems highly unlikely.
