From Russia with love: Samsung’s Tizen OS gets a boost from the Kremlin

By Williams Pelegrin February 10, 2015

tizen passes blackberry in mobile adoption samsung z1 tinzen — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Up until now, Samsung’s Tizen mobile operating system has been met by a lukewarm reception, at best. With that said, it’s tough to compete in a global market completely dominated by Android and, to a much lesser extent, Apple — Both of which are American companies. As such, you begin to see why, in a series of tweets, Russian minister of communication Nikolai Nikiforov isn’t a fan of Android and would rather ally himself with Tizen.

Reported by Techcrunch, Nikiforov denounces Google for the mobile monopoly it has with Android, which, in his opinion, is not a truly open-source operating system. He mentions the likes of Tizen, Sailfish, and Ubuntu as operating systems which are truly open sourced and could give Android a run for its money.

More importantly, Nikiforov feels there should be a need for others to break the stronghold America has on mobile operating systems, with Russia ready and able to support any and all competitors to Android. The Russian government will even issue grants to developers of rival operating systems, such as Tizen and Sailfish.

While this could be seen as nothing more than talk by a politician, keep in mind that Samsung launched its first Tizen smartphone, the Samsung Z, in Russia back in June 2014, though its availability was delayed, likely due to a lack of applications. With Russia seemingly behind Tizen, all Samsung has to do is actually make it good.

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Williams Pelegrin

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…

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