Report: New Samsung Tizen Phones in the Works
After launching its first Tizen-powered smartphone in January, we haven't heard too much about Samsung's plans for its in-house, Linux-based operating system.
But Samsung reportedly has some new Tizen devices in the works. Reuters, citing an unnamed person with "knowledge of the matter" reported that the South Korean tech giant is gearing up to launch "several" more handsets running its own Tizen OS this year.
The handsets will reportedly be available in a range of prices, but Reuters' source didn't offer up any specifics. Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Talk of Samsung Tizen phones ramped up in 2013, but Samsung didn'tlaunch its first Tizen smartphone, the Z1, until earlier this year in India.
"[The] launch of the Samsung Z1 is a significant milestone in Tizen's evolution as the OS of Everything," a Tizen spokesman told PCMag in an email at the time. "With easily adaptable profiles for wearables, smartphones, smart TVs and In-Vehicle Infotainment, Tizen continues to provide a fast, efficient environment that can power a broad array of innovative devices."
Over the last six months, Samsung has sold 1 million Z1 smartphones, according to The Economic Times. That may sound like a lot, but the report notes that Tizen is "nowhere near dominating the Indian market," given that about 2.8 million Android phones in the same sub-$100 category are shipped in India each month.
But Samsung is optimistic about its sales figures. "It has been better than expectations for us," Asim Warsi, vice president for marketing, mobile and IT at Samsung India, told The Economic Times. "It stacks up equal and better with some of its neighboring models in our portfolio."
Meanwhile, the company is reportedly planning to launch a gold version of the Z1 in India next month.
Why Tizen? As PCMag's Sascha Segan explained last year, Tizen was widely seen as a backstop for Samsung in case Google's control over Android became too suffocating. Developed with Intel, the OS lived in a weird limbo until this year's launch, with software releases and apps appearing (often juiced by Samsung and Intel money) but no actual devices to run them on.
