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The phone will be available in Russia sometime in the July-September period with other markets to follow, the firm said in a statement without specifying which markets.
Samsung did not offer sales forecasts or how much the phone will sell for, though an executive told Reuters in April that the company is working on at least two models powered by Tizen and that will be released “in a few countries where we can do well.” The Samsung Z would be the latest effort by the electronics giant to build momentum for Tizen, with its Gear 2 smartwatches also powered by the platform. The majority of Samsung’s mobile devices are based on Google’s Android platform. The push to develop its own operating system is part of efforts to reduce dependence on the US firm, but delays in product launches have undercut expectations.
The Samsung executive said in April he thinks Tizen would have to account for up to 15% of Samsung’s total smartphone shipments to be deemed a success.
“There is plenty of room and plenty of opportunity for a strong third vendor; arguably if you can carve out 10% of a two billion units market in smartphones (by 2018), then that could be an opportunity,” said Rachel Lashford, Singapore-based analyst at Canalys.
Many in the industry are still in the dark about Tizen, however, so there are questions about Samsung’s level of commitment to the platform, Lashford said.
Analysts also say it will be difficult for Samsung to lure enough developers to make the apps and services necessary to mount a serious challenge to dominant platforms Android and iOS from Apple Inc.
Samsung declined to say how many apps are available for the operating system.
“The market for Tizen won’t be as big as Android or Apple’s iOS, so I think it will be a challenge for Samsung to build up an ecosystem,” said IM Investment analyst Lee Min-hee.
Tizen may be more useful as leverage in future negotiations with Google, Lee said.
FT InsightTizen is an open and flexible operating system built from the ground up to address the needs of all stakeholders of the mobile and connected device ecosystem, including device manufacturers, mobile operators, application developers and independent software vendors (ISVs). Tizen is developed by a community of developers, under open source governance, and is open to all members who wish to participate. The Tizen operating system comes in multiple profiles to serve different industry requirements. The current Tizen profiles are Tizen IVI (in-vehicle infotainment), Tizen Mobile, Tizen TV, and Tizen Wearable. In addition to that, as of Tizen 3.0, all profiles are built on top of a common, shared infrastructure called Tizen Common. With Tizen, a device manufacturer can begin with one of these profiles and modify it to serve their own needs, or use the Tizen Common base to develop a new profile to meet the memory, processing and power requirements of any device and quickly bring it to market. Mobile operators can work with device partners to customize the operating system and user experience to meet the needs of specific customer segments or demographics. The Tizen project resides within the Linux Foundation and is governed by a Technical Steering Group. The Technical Steering Group is the primary decision-making body for the open source project, with a focus on platform development and delivery, along with the formation of working groups to support device verticals. The Tizen Association has been formed to guide the industry role of Tizen, including gathering of requirements, identification and facilitation of service models, and overall industry marketing and education. |
