It seems the rumor mill churned in the wrong direction with speculation on what type of device Samsung would initially launch its Tizen operating system on. Rather than go for the obvious choice of pushing the OS on to a smartphone, Samsung chose to introduce it on the company’s already released mirror-less camera. Powered by Tizen 1.0, the NX300M is not be your typical camera. During the Tizen Developer Summit held in Asia Nov. 11, principal engineer Jong-Deok Choi announced the camera has a 20.3-megapixel resolution; is capable of capturing nine shots per second; boots up in only three seconds, which he claims is twice as fast as other Linux-based camera’s on the market; and allows instant sharing with built-in duel-channel WiFi and NFC capability.
The Samsung camera is of no surprise to the world of tech, as its specs were announced early last month as a modified version of the original NX300, and available only in Korea. Engadget reported on the debut in October and so far, “the reviews have been pretty spectacular,” said Choi. At the time, the Korean company reported that the camera came with an 3.31-inch OLED touch display capable of rotating up to 180 degree, hybrid auto-focus, APS-C sensor, a high ISO range of up to 25,600 (extremely light-sensitive) and 8.6fps continuous shooting. What they didn’t admit to however, is that it was already running the Tizen software. The camera is available in South Korea in three different colors for about 890,000 won ($829) . We can expect specs and pricing remain unchanged in relation to the latest announcement.
Samsung certainly surprised us with this one, however rumors were not quite off. Kim Hyun-seok, head of Samsung Electronics’ visual display unit, announced Nov. 7 that the Tizan-powered smartphone will be the next type of device to be released. It is not expected to make an appearance into the market until 2014, however. Once the smartphone is released, we can expect the Tizen powered smart television, followed by a long line of Tizen-powered toys including tablets, netbooks and in-vehicle infotainment devices.