Samsung Electronics is reportedly betting on its proprietary Tizen operating system once again, this time in a quest to make its Internet of Things (IoT) solutions independent from third-party ecosystems including Google’s Android platform. According to a recent report from South Korea, the company is looking to introduce its Tizen OS to all small-sized IoT products including scales and smart lights, as well as larger home appliances. In addition, it would appear that Samsung Electronics may want to benefit from the European Union’s reluctance toward Google and establish the Tizen platform as “an integrated OS for the EU.”
According to a Samsung Electronics official cited by BusinessKorea, one of the reasons why the company intends on promoting its own operating system for IoT devices lies in royalties. Generally speaking, Samsung needs to “pay a lot of royalties” when developing new home appliances powered by operating systems created by other companies like Google. With that said, by relying on its own Tizen platform, Samsung can cut development costs and have more control over its own ecosystem. New IoT products could be developed faster and future firmware updates should be implemented and distributed with more ease. The recent report also reveals that Samsung may want to establish a foothold on the old continent through this new Tizen OS initiative while Google continues to face opposition in the region due to antitrust laws. Apparently, Samsung’s Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun already met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss a new ecosystem for IoT and household appliances, and their responses in regards to an integrated OS for the EU has been positive, insiders recently said.
This isn’t the first time Samsung attempted to rely less on Google and more on its own resources. The Tizen platform was initially designed as an operating system for smartphones, and in its early days, the ecosystem was supported by an organization formed by a larger number of companies working together to create an alternative to Android OS. The list of members included major brands such as NTT DoCoMo, Huawei, SK Telecom, KT, LG U Plus, and Intel, but the Tizen alliance slowly shrunk over the years, and the OS now found a new purpose in the wearable market and is currently one of the most popular smartwatch platforms in the world.