Last year a rumor swirled that Samsung was planning to shut down development of its Bada OS and the company would start focusing on its open-source Linux-based OS – Tizen. Finally that rumor has turned into reality. Samsung has officially announced that it aims to allocate resources from Bada to Tizen, whilst helping developers with the transition.
The Bada OS was Samsung’s self-developed system for mobile phones that initially gained traction, but ultimately failed to grab a market share when compared to Android-powered devices in the same price range. Now, the Korean electronics and home appliance giant has shown off a reference design running the Tizen OS, an open-source Linux based OS that is fully compatible with HTML5, on an Intel chipset at MWC 2013. The Tizen OS can be considered as an alternative for those that don’t want to be a part of the Android or iOS ecosystem. Tizen OS phones will also run apps designed for the Bada platform making the importing of apps easier for the new OS.
Samsung isn’t alone to adopt Tizen OS. There are many handset manufacturers such as Fujitsu and Huawei, who have also decided to manufacture devices running the Tizen OS. On the other side, NTT Docomo has committed itself as a carrier for the device in Japan.
The first devices running the Tizen OS are expected to hit store shelves as early as July 2013. It’s unclear when Tizen will make its way to the U.S., but Sprint Nextel is a member of the Tizen Association and has expressed an openness to the phones.
What do you think? Does smartphone operating system Tizen have the potential to take on the big guns like iOS, Firefox OS or Android? Share your thought with us.
Source: CNET (1), CNET (2)
Thanks To: iTech Post
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Its Linux, so its more open than most… I think I’d prefer Ubuntu, cause its independent from hardware manufacturers, but either way, I’d prefer Tizen over Android, and anything over the Microsoft and Apple jail cells.
Firefox seems less interesting with that web-app only focus… I like some stuff to be local. Internet might not always be up or available. I know the telco carriers LOVE Firefox, so that alone is a reason to be suspicious. If its good for carriers, its guaranteed it will be bad for users.