While many still seem to think that Samsung’s Tizen OS is going to be the South Korean’s way of moving away from Android and delivering better experiences for their users, the company has had a real hard time even getting the project off the ground. A little while ago, we were anxiously waiting for the launch of Samsung’s first Tizen devices, but then Samsung’s partners backed out and cancelled the launches of the handsets. So, since then Samsung as rethought their strategy a little bit and now, it’s said that next month could see the launch of the very first Tizen smartphone, in Russia no less.
You might be wondering why Samsung would launch their first device in Russia, but it’s pretty simple really. Samsung recently said they would only launch a Tizen device in a region where they could be successful. Russia might not be one of the first regions you think of, but considering Google isn’t anywhere near as big a presence in Russia as they are here in the West, a device without Android wouldn’t be much of a problem for consumers over there. While there’s no word on whether or not Samsung has partnered with Yandex (the “Russian Google”), it’d be a great move for Samsung and help them sell Tizen to the Russian buying public a lot easier.
Samsung is a big name all over the world, but here in the US, Android often goes a long with it, as such Tizen would struggle to take off without the same amount of apps and games. In Russia though, they can live without Google and so, a Tizen device would appear much like just another quality Samsung smartphone and that’s what Samsung has been needing all along. According to a Samsung official, the device will be launching in Russia some time next month. The Tizen-focused blog who broke the story has a decent track record with this sort of thing, so stay tuned.