Samsung to Release Several Tizen Smartphones This Year

By Liezl Dunuan, Christian Post Contributor Wednesday, July 01, 2015

Korean phone manufacturer Samsung may be gearing up to build its own smartphone ecosystem, if a report from Reuters is true. A source privy to Samsung's plans said that the company will be releasing several smartphones running on Samsung's own Tizen operating system later this year.

The plan is to release several types of Tizen smartphones with varying price points. The insider, however, did not reveal any other specifications.

Samsung declined to comment on the report.

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Samsung has previously released its first Tizen smartphone, the Z1 but it is only being sold in South Asia, particularly Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India. Over 1 million Z1s have been sold in India, considered to be the world's third biggest smartphone market. During the first quarter of 2015, the Z1 was the best-selling phone in Bangladesh, according to Reuters. An unlocked device only sells for $100.

Tizen is described as an open-source operating system that can run across different kinds of devices, much like the Android. It is designed to run on smartphones, tablets, smart TVs and other smart devices. Samsung has been taking the lead in Tizen's development but there are other industry groups who are part of the Tizen Association. These include Intel, Panasonic and Huawei, among others.

The Tizen OS is considered to be a good and cheaper alternative the more established mobile OS such as Android and iOS. Samsung is said to be eyeing the development of Tizen devices primarily for emerging markets where lower price points are ideal, according to another report in Tech Times.

Aside from smartphones, Samsung is already using the Tizen OS on its wearables, namely the Gear 2 and the Gear S. They also recently announced that the smart TVs that are coming out this year will be running on Tizen.

Creating a new ecosystem for Tizen OS however entails more smartphones using the OS and more users using these Tizen smartphones. Only then will developers come in to work on apps and other projects to cater to the new platform.