Samsung’s Bold Step Introducing the Tizen Smartphone

Samsung plans to launch its Tizen Z, the world’s first commercial Tizen smartphone, later this year in Russia.

Samsung has spent the last several years developing Tizen. Up till now Samsung used Google’s Android to run its Galaxy smartphones and tablets. However, with Tizen Z, Samsung has confirmed it’s serious about trying to use Tizen as an alternative to Google’s Android, Apple’s iOS, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone.

Some of What Tizen Provides

It’s Open Source

Samsung has partnered with Intel to develop Tizen. The new Tizen operating system is based on Linux.  And, since it’s open-source, like Android, hardware manufacturers who choose to adopt it are free to tinker with the User Interface to make it as unique as they like.

It’s HTML 5-Based

Being an HTML5-based operating system, Tizen gives content creators a platform that should provide them shorter development cycles, which will in turn lower the cost of building apps. Mobile phone and tablet users can in time expect slicker mobile web applications. Also, it should be easier to watch things like YouTube clips, or to listen to music.

 It looks like Android Layered with TouchWiz

Whether Samsung’s bold move to introduce Tizen takes off like Apple was able to do with its iOS-driven Smartphones is a big question. Samsung has said that they don’t want to introduce a whole new way of doing things for Tizen-users; rather, they prefer to make Tizen look very similar to their TouchWiz Android interface.

It’s Not Just for Smartphones

According to Samsung Electronics co-CEO J.K. Shin, the aim of Tizen is to offer a unified experience across multiple devices, which could include smartphones, tablets, laptops, TVs, and even in the evolving banking and automobile industries. Tablets running Tizen are already in the hands of developers. The first official Tizen device was the 20.3-megapixel Samsung NX300M camera, which was announced in late 2013.