Chris Croteau is an association director and the manager of platform and business management for Intel. He told CITE world that Tizen-powered devices should be commercially available “early next year.” We have already received Tizen, albeit in stealth mode, the Tizen based Samsung Smart Camera. Remember: You’ve probably been reading it here!
Croteau didn’t go into details but he indicated per email that the first devices most likely will be a smartphone. As we’ve heard similar “rumors” from Samsung as well it’s really not that big a surprise. NTT DoCoMo has even stated it was planning to ship devices so it’s fairly sure one of the first tizen devices will be a smart phone.
Who cares about Tizen when you can have iOS or Android? Or windows mobile? And especially: Why would worlds’ number one producer of Android based smartphones take the lead in the Tizen development?
It can’t be market share, can it?
Yes it can and, even worse: Yes it’s been going on for a while too!
• Remember those glorious Nokia Communicators (in their day they were the top of the bill. Had to pay through the nose for them…)? They ran on Symbian, like the rest of the nokia crop. The nice people in Finland they were invincible but then, one day, they were the untouchables. Nobody wanted their symbian and now they have become part of the company that they have been fighting for a long time: It’s Microsoft who is now buying the last shares.
• Then there was that other company, almost as well known for it’s smartphones: Motorola. Once proudly independent, now a part of Google which as we all know, also is the Emperor of Gmail, a lot of G-services and also a massive stakeholder in the Android world.
• Last of the three big un’s is Apple that has created both hardware and software to a tune that is unheard of, but also working on it’s own decline as customers get wary of changes that are no big changes. Still, they have invented worlds’ most unnecessary gadget that cannot be missed anymore and basically is the starter of the BYOD revolution.
So these 3 giants have it all: Hardware and Software.
That might make the Koreans of Samsung more or less dependent on their competitors for smartphone apps. Let’s face it: A company doesn’t want to be facing customers complaining about a game or app that’s already available in the google-Android-version-Store and not in the Samsung-Android-store. Or things like face recognition, measuring the level of alcohol in your breath, whatever.
That doesn’t fit one of the biggest conglomerates of todays’ world.
The major difference betweens these 4 is that Samsungs’ realm spread way beyond personal devices. Think Fridges, TV-sets, Cranes and Ships. For an overview Here’s WIKI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Group)
I guess there is much more to Samsung’s involvement in developing Tizen. Not only will they be able to prevent themselves from being cornered by one of the three big ones, it’s my guess that they will aim to oust Microsoft from the Top 3 and won’t stop until they are the number one.
Tizen is based on Linux and includes code from both Samsung’s Bada and Intel’s MeeGo mobile OS projects. At Samsung’s developers conference in late October, which mostly seemed to be about Android, the buzz word seemed to be tizen. Some apps companies, such as AppBackr, were offering developers cash incentives to work on Tizen apps.
But Tizen’s commercial possibilities extends beyond Samsung’s plans. Last week the Tizen Association introduced a partner program set to broaden support and recognition for the Tizen platform: For devices, apps developers, service providers and operators. 36 partners were named: Household names like McAfee and Trend Micro, Panasonic and Sharp, eBay and The Weather Channel but also less recognized names like Goo Technologies, social maps maker Citymaps, game producer Konami, and Quixey, a search engine for apps.
OK, it’s all more or less related to phones and tablets, and even TV. But there’s another group interested in Tizen: Suppliers to the automotive industries! In vehicle systems that in a few year will allow you to stream radio, like TuneIn. It’s one the many industry players that are working to develop apps for cars and trucks.
“We have a very strong base built up in automotive,” Croteau said. “The automotive grade Linux consortium, led by Toyota and Jaguar and Land Rover, is all based on Tizen.”
It’s nice to have them talking things but the most important thing to start with is the development of apps that people want. Or need! The Tizen Project is making a big push for developers as was shown during its third developers’ summit. It was the first one in Asia, thus highlighting the importance of the Asian markets for developers, their apps and industrial applications.
To conclude: Tizen is no mobile OS. It’s the system that will operate chunks of the world. Name it the internet of the things. or maybe one day it will be called Borneo (1)
(1) Borneo is one of the Indonesian Islands, like Java is.
Related News
