Tizen ? Rings a bell ? Obviously it does, at least for Samsung-enthusiasts. Tizen, Samsung’s in-house OS which never really took off (apart from making appearance in Samsung’s launch events), will now see its app store going global, with a scheduled launch in all 182 countries.
This move, though significant for an OS which is hardly visible anywhere except demo devices, is howere perplexing at the same time. You ask Why ? Well, for starters, Tizen smartphones are currently available only in India and Bangladesh. The first basic handset based on Tizen, called the Samsung Z1 was launched in January this year for less than $100 aiming to target the budget smartphone segment in India.
However Samsung has ambitious plans for Tizen. And the South Korean giant has made sure that you see its ambitions. 4 out of the 6 smart watches which Samsung currently sells, are based on Tizen. So are the humongous Samsung televisions. Samsung’s Co-chief executive B.K. Yoon recently confirmed in an interview earlier this year, that Samsung’s TVs are Tizen TVs.
It is noteworthy that for any mobile operating system to be pitched as an alternative to Android or iOS, it must boast of a remarkably diverse and stable app store and building such an app store in itself is a mammoth task. Ask Microsoft and Blackberry about their recent experiences, and you’ll get a fair bit of an idea.
For the time being, the Tizen Store doesn’t boast much in the way of big-name apps developed specifically for the platform.
However, Samsung is undeterred by all those failures which Tizen has gone through till date. In fact, the company said in a statement,
Our plan for Tizen smarthones has not changed since the launch of the Z1. We see a great potential in Tizen-based smartphone
And since Tizen doesn’t boast of apps built specifically for it, this may well explain why Samsung has first made its app store global. Why ? Well, in order to invite developers to build apps for the platform and help it at least get off the launch pad.
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