Samsung Delaying Tizen-Based Z to ‘Further Enhance’ OS

Samsung is delaying the launch of the Samsung Z, its first smartphone to run the Tizen operating system.

In a July 28 statement, Samsung cited a need to “further enhance” the OS, and said it will “actively work with Tizen Association members pursuing to further develop both Tizen OS and the Tizen ecosystem.”

The Association’s 10 members are Intel, Huawei, Fujitsu, LG and Samsung, plus carriers KT, Docomo, Orange, SK Telecom and Vodafone.

The Samsung Z was slated to debut in Russia this quarter and then continue on to additional markets. No updated launch date was offered.

Samsung introduced the smartphone in June, alongside the Tizen Developer Conference in San Francisco, saying it enables users to “browse the Web faster and utilize applications more efficiently.”

The Z also features a 4.7-inch HD Super AMOLED display and a 2.3GHz quad-core processor.

Samsung has already launched two smartwatches running Tizen, its Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo. And earlier this month, it announced that the original, Android-running Gear can be upgraded to Tizen, which offers nearly twice as many apps than are available for the Android version, as well as improved battery performance.

Upgrading, Samsung said in a July 21 post, would also enable users to join the “growing community of Tizen owners.”

Samsung is expected to use the open-source operating system, run by the Linux Foundation, to put some space between it and partner Google, maker of the Android operating system that’s run by Samsung’s Galaxy devices—devices that have made Samsung the global leader in smartphone sales.

Samsung has said it will also release a Tizen-based television software development kit (SDK), and that users can expect “high-quality Smart TV apps with various 3D effects and animations.”

“Tizen plans to be the Operating System of Everything,” Samsung said in a June 18 blog post, explaining that three Tizen profiles have been released—for mobile, wearables and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI)—and a fourth, for home appliances, is on the way.

“Apps developed with Tizen will be able to run on all of these profiles, allowing for integration of devices!” Samsung said in the post. “Start imagining an app that can control all these products, because it will happen…”

Offering further motivation to developers, in the first year, 100 percent of the revenue for Tizen apps, minus taxes and carrier billing fees, will go to developers.

Research firm Strategy Analytics expects Tizen to be a niche player through 2015, but to be among the fastest-growing operating systems that will “steadily chip away” at Android’s market share over the next five years.

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