The two main mobile operating systems in the world today are Android and iOS. However, despite using Android on most of its phones, Samsung has also a presence there with their own Tizen OS, which has surpassed BlackBerry as the fourth largest mobile operating system a couple of weeks ago. Although it doesn’t mean there are a lot of Tizen phones out there, this fact may have gotten Samsung’s attention for its potential of becoming mainstream, as a new report from Samsung Vietnam indicates that the company may be working on a high-end Tizen phone for 2016.
Samsung already has a few smartphones running their in-house system, the entry levels Samsung Z1 and Z3, which feature really poor specs for emerging markets. By introducing a high-end device, Samsung would bump up the value on Tizen and it would be interesting to see how the market would react. However, if there’s something that can definitely undermine an operation system (Windows Phone? BlackBerry? Anyone?) is the lack of apps, and Tizen is still far away from having an attractive portfolio of mobile apps and games. Samsung is working on it and developers have received some good incentives from the company to make apps for their platform, letting them keep all the revenue until 2017. This move resulted in a dedicated VLC app and a really essential official native Facebook app, and more are likely to come as the system gains market share.
Samsung has been using Tizen for most of its products except smartphones, as their smartwatches and smart TVs run the OS, and the system is capable of running on several other platforms including in-vehicle entertainment system for cars, smart home appliances such as smart fridges and washing machines, smart sensors and a lof other places. Having a high-end phone running the system would allow Samsung to build a deeply connected device ecosystem, which would be very interesting. Rival Apple has been doing so for a while and it would be a solid response to the iCompany’s ecosystem of Apple TV, Watch, iPhones and iPads all running iOS. Samsung is currently busy building the Galaxy S7, and almost every rumor from the company is about the upcoming flagship. However, if this rumor happens to be true, we will be seeing more information in the coming months, so stay tuned for more news.