What is Tizen?
Tizen is a new Linux based platform, developed as part of the Linux Foundation. Samsung has been working on the product for years under the name LiMo (Linux Platform for Mobile). The project title was changed to Tizen in 2011 when Intel got involved. Together, Samsung and Intel will lead development on the platform.
Tizen will be available for use on many devices including phones, tablets and Smart TVs. It’s intended to compete with iOS and Android ( also based on linux ) and has been designed to work primarily, on Smartphones.
When Tizen devices become available to the general public, likely Q1 2013, with at least one device from Samsung themselves, they will be running Tizen 2.0. As one of the world’s largest Mobile Phone suppliers, Samsung’s involvement alone could mean Tizen is a big deal going in to 2013.
Tizen and Samsung Strategy
Tizen could represent an important strategic move for Samsung. Having the new Operating System available to them makes their hardware less dependent on any particular platform – like Android for instance.
Given the problems with Apple suing Samsung for infringing their patents, when using the Android Operating System, and the near homogenization of the Android device market it’s not hard to see why they’re looking for alternatives.
Additionally, last year, Google purchased Motorola Mobility which it’s using to produce hardware including the Nexus Series of devices. This could be making Samsung feel exposed. They have little ability to influence the Android roadmap in the way that, theoretically, Motorola could.
Tizen gives them far more control over what direction the platform takes and therefore the experience their customers have on their devices. It gives Samsung the opportunity to start tying together an optimal hardware and software configuration in a device, much like Apple do with their iOS.
In the short term, it seems unlikely that Tizen will replace Android as the most favored Samsung OS. Longer term, Samsung could conceivably use the platform as their primary platform if it proves popular or, as a niche product to service markets where having cheap alternatives is important – like the developing world where Smart Mobile Phones seem certain to sell in huge volumes in the very near future.
In either case, Tizen represents a way for Samsung to hedge their bets and offset a significant risk, in their continued bet on supporting the Android platform.
We’ve got Android and iOS – Do We Need Tizen ?
Android and Apple’s iOS mobile Operating Systems form the largest part of new ( Smart ) mobile phone sales at the moment in Australia. Add in the late 2012 launch of Windows Phone 8, with the imminent arrival of Blackberry 10 and even Firefox launching a mobile OS – and you’ve got to question the point at which there are too many mobile Operating Systems in the market.
Truthfully, people find it different to ‘pick apart’ the number of options already available to them. Perhaps that’s the reason the market consolidated down in the first place, all but closing down Palm and Symbian.
People tend not to buy a device for the Operating System per se. In large part, the appeal of a platform is the apps users can find to use on it. Applications are such a large part of the modern mobile experience and, as incumbents, each the the top 2 mobile platforms are taking up significant components of the available developer base. Each time a new platform is introduced, developers to write the apps for the platform become harder to find.
So how will Tizen deal with Apps ?
Tizen is going to be doing something quite different with applications from what’s currently available. Tizen’s main applications will be based on HTML 5.
Tizen offers a web based development environment which should attract a new type of developer. Importantly, Samsung own the SDK – or Software Development Kit – they’ll distribute it under a propriatory license to developers – for the platform. It’s this what will gives them so much lot of control over how the platform is used and the experience it generates.
One of the nice features will be the Application Compatibility Layer, which allows users to use all of their favorite Android and Bada OS ( one of the parent Operating Systems that was used as the foundation of Tizen ) applications. That should give Samsung a critical mass of applications from the get go.
Tizen & HTML 5
In Tizen, it is possible to run HTML 5 applications without a browser or an internet connection. HTML 5 apps have been available for iOS and Android devices for quite some time. At the moment, in general, they are not nearly as shiny or smooth as native applications.
One of the benefits of these HTML 5 applications on the iPhone is that they are not subject to the terms of Apple’s content policies. Currently in order for a user to add an HTML 5 application to their phone, he or she must find the url and add to their home screen as a bookmark.
Right now HTML 5 can’t come close to the experience native apps offer, but with more and more work invested into the technology, it may one day reach the same level.