Samsung has been undeniably known these days for faithfully creating smartphones that run under the Google operating system Android, which it places on its Galaxy line. It has manufactured products like smartwatches and appliances under Tizen, its own homemade OS, yet the second operating system has not been the company's top priority.
However, that all may change in the future. According to The Korea Times, Samsung is planning to utilize Tizen for all of its products. This is reportedly to cut its heavy reliance on using the Android platform. "If you don't have your own ecosystem, then you will have no future. Tizen isn't just a platform developed for use with mobile devices," said a senior Samsung Electronics executive who wished to not be named.
The executive admitted that the company was late in developing its own platform and ecosystem, but stated that "Samsung is getting much better."
To complement this claim, the executive said that the landscape of the technology industry has seen a shift from Business-to-Consumer (B2C) to Business-to-Business (B2B), which will aid Tizen towards seeing a remarkable rise in market share.
Samsung has released a few Tizen products, but they have seen a limited release. The company started using Tizen for its Gear smartwatches back in 2014, replacing Android. More recently, it was reported that the company has dumped Android Wear, which it used for the Gear Live, but Samsung was quick to point out that they have not changed their stance on platform commitments.
Furthermore, in order to solidify its own platform, the Korean electronics giant has been seen releasing its Tizen-powered smartphones under its Z line in India, which are sold under a low price tag. It released the Samsung Z1 in the country, where one million units were reportedly sold. Shortly after, Samsung unveiled the Z3, which served as the Z1's successor.
"Samsung's Z-branded Tizen-powered phones are popular with Indian consumers. During the first quarter of this year, Samsung sold about 64 million phones there. This means that Tizen is proving its competitiveness," said the executive.
To be able to make Tizen grow even further, Samsung will start providing incentives to Tizen developers, though what that exactly might be was not specified. Back in 2014, it killed one of its phones due to lack of app support from developers.
Source: The Korea Times
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